T.I. reviewed
T.I.
T.I. Vs. T.I.P.
(Atlantic/Grand Hustle)
2006’s best-selling rapper revives a concept from his second album, pitting the alleged two sides of his personality against each other in an appropriately half-baked affair.
Not to pull the rug out from under anybody, but Hollywood does this thing where it sets scripts aside for stars who more-or-less don’t exist yet so they can be super promoted immediately. That’s why flicks like Britney Spears’ Crossroads, 50 Cent’s Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, and From Justin To Kelly get to theaters so quickly. (I know, that last one shocked me, too.) T.I. Vs. T.I.P. sounds as if T.I. wrote his own screenplay and couldn’t even wait to get the movie made. Having triumphed with last year’s King, the impetus behind this album seems to be to get more product on the marketplace to keep his name out there, nothing more.
The convolution unfolds with his “street” ego T.I.P. popping caps over the first seven songs, giving T.I. the “pop svengali/businessman” the next six, and then Jekyll and Jekyll have a psychological showdown on the last three. The trouble is (barring the flaccidity of two-thirds of the tracks) it’s totally uninvolving. T.I. doesn’t even stick to the script. The T.I.P. tracks are just as poppy as the rest — the album’s first two singles come from here — and less attention seems to have been paid into crafting the business side’s songs into more than mere castoffs. At least he spares us a trip to the theater.
— Steve Forstneger
