Fuck a mixtape. Fuck a mixtape? Well, if you feel that way, T.I., howabout fuck a review? Although he’s – fairly – Lil Wayne’s only real competitor for King of the South, T.I. can’t do what Weezy can. Lil Wayne is crazy – the man stores verses away in his head moment by moment so he can sporadically spit them whenever and over whatever possible (the mother fucker is spitting freestyles out of jail, also appearing on this very mixtape). T.I. just doesn’t work like that – he’s focused on the business, man, forget all the prefixes, suffixes, and affixes, T.I. is very comfortable having ceilings on his mansion. So he’s out now that Wayne’s in, has shit on his chest on a reputation to retain, so he’s giving us this mixtape…but you know, fuck it.
That attitude informs this entire tape. You ask T.I., he should be doing bigger things, but hey, why not. Throughout the tape, people (including Jamie Foxx, who is still acting like he’s the new black) call in to ask T.I. why he’s wasting time with a mixtape, and ask where the album is. The mixtape has been going back and forth. Weezy’s obsession with them along with the boost So Far Gone and Beam Me Up Scotty gave their respective Young Money newbie creators have proved them still viable career support, but many of the biggest MCs have largely left them behind. Well, according to the man himself, he has over 150 tracks lying around hoping to make that effort, so these songs may full well simply be the cuts which weren’t quite good enough.
Mixtapes are often an artist’s attempt to reach their potential “real” fan base; you’ll notice the lack of choruses and so on. T.I., however, openly sneers at this, threatening those who compare his mixtape to his album. You can’t really disagree with him – the Jim Jonsin produced “Get Yo Girl” is just about as chart-ready as any T.I. single, aside from its brutal nature (essentially, just dissing some other guy’s girl). The surprisingly decent Timbaland-produced “Here We Go Again”, No I.D.’s “Ready Set Go” (which spots Killer Mike, no less), and the Young Jeezy featuring “No Competition” are among the production highlights.
Generally, the mixtape is about what you’d expect from any given one. There’s the annoyingly typical, “Gangsta Grillz!” shouting everywhere, and more than ever I wish DJ Drama would quiet it down. Mixtape shoutouts are like advertisements on free porn: they’re not making anyone any money, and just irritate the people peeping the talent. The beats are passable, but only a few struck as doing anything more than the bare necessities. They provide rough platforms for the freed MC to simply get his damn words to the people and that itself is T.I.’s passion here, alongside his simultaneous scoffing at the outlet. T.I. himself ranges across the board throughout the mixtape, dropping lines like, “I’m gonna reign forever, better get an umbrella,” to lazily spitting duds such as, “Sour niggas give me lemons, I make lemonade.” This is really nothing new though, T.I. is one talented MC, but he’s nothing if not spotty line to line, moments of brilliance follow moments that tire. He says the mixtape is him tossing out songs to those who have made him feel missed, and that he doesn’t really care about releasing the material, that he’ll drop it when he feels truly missed. It’s a double-edged sword, and while it’s nice to simply hear the rapper back to doin’ it, nothing on here surpasses the singles already released (two of which in fact appear here) from the hopeful classic King Uncaged.
