The Tape

T.I.- Paper Trail (An Album Review)

Written by willshoob on Tuesday, 30 of September , 2008 at 3:31 pm

T.I.’s newest album, Paper Trail is a step in the right direction for Mr. Clifford “Tip” Harris. After last years colossal terd of an album entitled T.I. Vs. TIP, Clifford has returned showing he can make music that doesn’t suck. For what T.I. is, he is a great rapper. He’s not a rapper who cares about important lyrics, or interesting beats, he is a rapper who is in it to make money. I consider rap in two parts: I consider most rappers to be buisnessmen, while I consider a few rappers to be musicians. T.I. strattles the line with this album, as he tries to prove to the world he is not a bad man. T.I. made this album while under house arrest, and he starts to spread more of a positive message, unlike his previous albums. T.I. has been traveling around America lecturing kids on his past mistakes, and how they can prevent them. He will be going to jail for a year, so I can imagine all of this factored into his making of this album. But this is still a commercial rap album that talks about how much money he has. Although he seems to take a more positive spin on most of the stereotypes for radio rap music. For example, on the albums second single “Whatever You Like” T.I. talks about spoiling one girl or “dropping a couple a stacks on you” instead of talking about how many women he does have. It just feels like T.I. is trying to spread a better message now that he has had a bit of a wake up call.

On T.I.’s opening track entitled “56 Barz”, he says “Ya’ll been waiting on this shit since What You Know, huh?” He is precisely right. Most people who bought his last album thought T.I. had become schizophrenic, and had no idea why he was having two different made up characters who were both himself fight on the album. So most T.I. fans skipped over the last album, and remembered the glorious song from his album King, entitled “What You Know.” “What You Know” is one of the best beats I had heard in a while, although the lyrics came up way short. Anyways, T.I. was precisely right in his assumption. The only reason this track rules is because he shouts out Lupe.

Skip a few tracks and you arrive at”Live Your Life” featuring Rihanna, which is an absolute hit. Any song with Rihanna has a chance to be successful, but this song is one of the catchiest I’ve heard in a while. It once again features T.I. spreading a positive message, and has Rihanna belting out an insanely catchy chorus.

T.I. strategically placed my three favorite songs in a row because after “Live Your Life”, next comes “Whatever You Like” and then “No Matter What.” From there all the way until “Swagga Like Us”, the album is pretty dull. I have a personal vendetta against “Swagga Like Us” because that was the song that shut our website down, but it’s a shitty song anyways. Any song that has Kanye mentioning asthma, swagger more than once, relating himself to both shit and urine, and relating himself to Christopher Columbus is a piece of shit. Also Jay-Z thinks a new term for testicle is knot. LOLZ.

The only other songs that catch my attention are “Dead and Gone” which features Justin Timberlake, and “What Up What’s Haapnin’.” “Dead and Gone” will be on the radio real soon. It features Justin Timberlake, a Timbaland esque beat and T.I. rapping a speedy verse. Essentially the same formula that made Justin Timberlake’s “My Love” a massive hit. “What Up What’s Haapnin’” is an entertaining song, with a catchy chorus.

For what it is, T.I. made a good album. This album wasn’t going to have any really smart, intelligent lyrics or feature any killer beats. Instead, it features safe lyrics that will keep the attention of an average listener, and beats that will catch radio stations attention. I didn’t expect much more out of this album, but it does have a couple of great songs. There are about 5 or 6 songs that I will enjoy guiltily for a while, and the rest will probably never get played purposely on my Itunes. If you’re a die hard T.I. fan you’ll probably love this album, but if you’re a die hard hip-hop fan, you’ll think this album is mediocre.

I don’t think T.I. has the lyrical skills to capture an audience based solely on his words, so for this album he has to rely on megastars singing choruses and producers to make hits. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just shows that T.I. knows his flaws, and how to make them irrelevant.

All of these files are on box, so left click them ;-).

P.S. The “Live Your Life” link is now fixed, thanks for the heads up Gord.

T.I.- Live Your Life (Feat. Rihanna)

T.I.- What Up What’s Haapnin’

T.I.- Dead and Gone (Feat. Justin Timberlake)

Category: Albums, Reviews

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