Last month, T.I. surprised fans by dropping a 5-track EP, Da' Nic. The EP dropped on Sept. 11, and in a new interview with MTV, Tip said that he had decided to create the EP just over a week before that. He went on to explain that Da' Nic wouldn't have happened if he wasn't a newly independent artist.
Da' Nic was released via Empire distribution, and not through Columbia Records, to which it was thought that Tip was still signed. Soon after the EP's release, though, the Grand Hustle boss announced that he had left Columbia and was now a "rogue artist."
"Corporate structure is about X's and O's and dollars and cents. So if you take something that derives from a sincere feeling, and there's a passionate origin, and then you try to put it into this system of protocols, procedures -- it doesn't fit," Tip told MTV.
We assume that, like Da' Nic, T.I.'s upcoming album, The Dime Trap, will also be released through Grand Hustle and Empire and not a major label. Perhaps this will affect the album's sales, but this is clearly a positive move for Tip's artistry.
