T.I. is no stranger to rap battles. When he was beefing with Shawty Lo, the Atlanta rapper went to Lo's neighborhood and shot the music video for the diss record "What Up, What's Haapnin'." He knows how to be disrespectful. That being said, TI is not thrilled with the direction that the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar battle went. He recently went on Big Boy TV to discuss the fallout of the battle, and asserted that it has been harmful to some of the other rappers who have tried to drop in 2024.
TI made it clear upfront that he didn't care about rappers lying. He considered it to be part of the game. He told the radio host that his focus goes towards the wordplay and the writing. "All this sh*t they saying can't be true," he asserted. "I mostly listen for the double entendres, the metaphors and the skill in which they present their art. They hard. I think it's good for the game." The Atlanta icon was less positive with regards to what the battle has done to other rappers. He pointed out that Drake and Dot sucked up all the oxygen in the room with regards to hip-hop, and everything else has been effectively drowned out.
TI Also Praised J. Cole For Choosing "Peace"
"I will say this," TI added. "They done kinda f*cked it up for some other who were planning to drop in this period." The rapper has a fair point. Gunna recently dropped a new album, One of Wun, and most of the attention was on the bars that could be perceived as digs at the 6 God. TI, himself, has been working on completing his final album, Kill the King. There isn't a release date yet, but the Atlanta rapper definitely had no plans of dropping a double album in the midst of the biggest rap battle of the 21st century.
TI also talked to Big Boy about J. Cole's decision to avoid the battle. While many industry veterans have criticized the rapper for buckling, TIP was complimentary. "I feel [like] he chose peace and tranquility," he noted. "You got to have thick skin... We don't know where that would take him. That was quite mature of him." Fans are still waiting on that TI album, but he did recently drop a killer freestyle over West Coast instrumentals.
