The New T.I.: Different From the Old T.I.
T.I.: "No Matter What"
from the forthcoming Paper Trail
It's not that T.I. has changed, per se. But the legal terms of his life have changed post-gun plea and "No Matter What," the meditative first leak from this summer's Paper Trail, is the sound of man forced to look at his life and ignore the themes that made him famous in the first place. There's no menace. There's no talk of the trap. And no mention of what he'll do with a weapon. In its place is self-reflection ("Even in solitude/there's still no hotter dude," "I lost my daughter and my partner in the same year," and the chorus: "I ain't dead, I ain't done/I ain't scared, I ain't run"), rolling church organs, and Slash circa "November Rain"-style blooz guitar. It's being reported that it's Danja on the beat (though T.I. references DJ Toomp on the song). If it is Danja, he supplies some typically strange flourishes here, too, like the screeching vinyl sounds not unlike those found on Usher's bizarro Rich Harrison-produced masterpiece "Dat Girl Right There."
Danja and Tip are developing an interesting chemistry: Last year's wildly disappointing T.I. vs. T.I.P. had few memorable tracks, but two of them, the throttling "Hurt" and the Halloween rap classic (yup!) "Tell 'em I Said That" were Danja/T.I. collaborations. Danja, perhaps even more than his mentor Timbaland, has a keen ear for drama, the ability to create circumstances that make his subjects sound equal parts hard and soft, triumphant and vulnerable. This is no small feat and if anyone needs it--for so many reasons--right now, it's Clifford Harris.
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Comments
1.
asiahism says:
Beat sounds like Vitamin C.
04/29/2008 at 4:06 PM