 As T.I. looks at serving up to a year in prison following his recent guilty plea on federal weapons charges, an obvious question is: What will it mean for his career? In addition to a string of platinum albums and hit singles, Tip was on the verge of seeing his acting career take off before his arrest in October, thanks to his role in "American Gangster"
And while he wouldn't be the first rapper to have his career put on hold by a
prison sentence, the possible year-long stretch would come after T.I. has
already served more than six months on house arrest. Though he's been using his
time at home to work on his next album, Paper Trail, the confinement has mostly
taken him out of the public eye since the fall.
As part of his sentence, T.I. (born Clifford Harris Jr.) must complete at least
1,000 hours of community service talking to kids about the ills of guns, drugs
and gangs. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, if the rapper abides
by the conditions of his plea agreement, he will likely serve less than the one
year and one day sentence that was imposed. That will be determined in March
2009, the paper reports. He was also sentenced to a year of home confinement,
minus the time he's already served locked down in his Atlanta-area home to date.
One of T.I.'s attorneys, Ed Garland, told the paper that his client is free to
"perform, act in movies [and] carry on with his business until the end of the
12-month period," though he will be shadowed by a private security officer at
all times who will report on him if he strays from the court-appointed
conditions. Even if he is able to promote Paper Trail later this year, the
prison sentence will take T.I. off the scene for a long stretch for the second
time in two years, an eternity in the here-today-gone-tomorrow-morning rap game.
There's never a good time to go to prison. But, depending on the trajectory of
their careers, some artists can survive, or even thrive, during their time away,
according to Chaz Williams, CEO of Black Hand Entertainment and manager of
incarcerated rapper Foxy Brown.
"It's bad for an artist to be taken away from their career for any amount of
time, whether it's through sickness or any other unfortunate circumstance," said
Williams. "The difference is that some artists are 'padded' better than others,
depending on what level of their career they're at."
In contrast to Remy Ma — who appeared unprepared for her recent 20-plus year
sentence in connection with the shooting of an acquaintance — Williams pointed
out that T.I., thanks to his plea deal, may have up to a year to get his
business affairs in order before entering prison.
"If I was in T.I.'s shoes, I would probably record an album and put it out in
the fourth quarter [of 2008]," Williams said. "Do some remixes and get an EP and
several videos done, so I have enough stuff to fuel my career at a certain level
until I get out."
Unlike Foxy — whose career had hit a plateau before her incarceration last year,
and, who, like Remy Ma, did not have as much time to prepare for her prison time
— Williams said T.I.'s career won't likely be derailed by the prison time. The
rapper did time in 2003, after being found guilty of violating his probation
from an earlier drug conviction. Williams said Tip's image as someone familiar
with the street drug trade and the violence that brings, for good or ill, is
inseparable from his rap persona.
"I don't want to say it happened at a good time in his career, because there's
never a good time to go to prison, but he has established himself with that
mystique of his problems in the past, and it's part of who he is."
Noted hip-hop lawyer Stacey Richman — who has defended Lil Wayne, DMX, Busta
Rhymes and Ja Rule on criminal charges involving guns and drugs — also said
rappers can blunt the impact of a prison sentence by organizing their affairs
before going away, noting that for some, for better or worse, it can almost
confer hero status among fans who perceive them as "taking it like a man." The
same could be said for other entertainers too.
"Look at Martha Stewart; [going to prison] was the greatest thing that ever
happened to her," said Richman of the domestic diva, who launched a successful
talk show after she did a five-month prison bid in 2004 for lying to
investigators about a stock sale; some feel the sentence helped to humanize
Stewart. "It opened her up to markets that she would never have reached before.
As much as the government wants to appear to be cracking down, they take the
risk of glorifying someone who they're trying to make an example of."
T.I.'s label and the producers and casting directors for the two movies T.I. has
appeared in so far, "ATL" and "Gangster," declined to comment for this story.
But according to director/screenwriter David Ayer, there are many headaches
associated with casting a rapper with legal issues. He cast Compton MC the Game
in his upcoming movie, "Street Kings," and the production had to work around
Game's court schedule when the rapper became entangled in a gun case while the
film was being made.
"We had an all-night shoot, and the next morning he had to go to court on gun
charges," said Ayer, the writer of "Training Day." "And I thought, 'Thank God
the court date didn't come up when we were scheduled to shoot!"
Ayer said he cast Game and Common in his movie because he's found that many
rappers are "natural actors who really understand showbiz and film." The issue
when choosing a rapper who might not be completely divorced from their street
life, he said, really comes down to how comfortable you are with working around
the legal issues. "It's about scheduling. If all of a sudden you have to work
around the justice system, and it's competing for their time, or if they get
locked up and their bond is revoked and they're not available?"
Asked if he would cast T.I. in a movie, Ayer said he would. If there were a
conflict, he would have someone waiting in the wings should the rapper not be
available because of his legal problems.
"No one can cast the guy right now, but I guarantee when he gets out, he will
get some offers," Ayer said. "If you show up and do your job and you're a hard
worker and you add something to the movie, whether it's street cred or a
following or you're just a good, natural actor, you will be back."
One of the biggest stumbling blocks for troubled actors, whether it's Lindsay
Lohan or T.I., is getting insured for a movie, but Ayer said if T.I. keeps
working on studio films, he should have no problem getting covered. "I'm sure
he's bondable, because all they care about is, 'Are they alive? Will they drop
dead?' "
The other side, however, is that the movie business is all about momentum, Ayer
said, and building off your last job, so when T.I. goes away, he will have a bit
of starting over to do.
While incarceration can give artists a whole new universe of experience to tap
into with their art, Richmond said the prospect of prison time is destructive to
performers' psyche, as well as that of their family.
"So much of the art that is in this realm of music are the tales of the people
that many aspects of society don't want to believe exist," she said. "It's
speaking of the truth of it, and they can bring a whole new level of reality to
a genre that is the folklore of society today. On the other hand, they are
distracted from their career and can't focus on their art. It can be financially
and emotionally devastating, and no matter who you are, when you're facing
charges, the impact is overwhelming." Source:
MTVNews - by: Gil Kaufman
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