Reflecting on T.I.: His State of Mind and His Choices

Recently a man has been convicted and sentenced to a very lengthy prison sentence for the shooting death of Philant Johnson, former good friend and assistant of rap artist T.I. The situation overall has obviously had a major effect on T.I.'s life and how he has personally chose to carry himself. In his music he has expressed some of his feelings regarding this situation. In his everyday life he has made some decisions which have caused him to have more trouble with the law, but it all stems from the death of his friend. Can we really blame him for his actions?

We are not sure how the altercation began, but we do know that it happened in May 2006 after one of T.I.'s concerts in Cincinnati. Apparently they were involved in some kind of shootout while driving on interstate 75. Philant Johnson died and three others were injured. Most of us have never been a part of an altercation like this. We can talk all day about what we would have done and how we would have handled the situation ourselves, but until you have walked in a person's shoes, you will never really know what you would do if it happened to you. T.I. did what most people who actually are from the streets would do in this situation.

T.I. whose real name is Clifford Harris is a mature adult who was raised in the inner city streets of Atlanta, Ga. Unlike most people who are not from the ghettos, T.I. probably felt that being strapped with machine guns would better his chances of survival had this situation occurred again. He and his people were probably outgunned when the actual shootout happened. People who haven't experienced living that kind of life can't fully understand the reason why people like T.I. choose to take matters into their own hands vs. trusting police and security 100 percent.

There are thousands and thousands of undocumented situations where people have trusted security and police to handle a situation and have utterly failed. T.I. didn't have possession of those machine guns to attack someone. He had possession of those machine guns to defend himself. The paranoia of losing a dear friend and nearly being shot yourself can twist up a person's emotions pretty bad, especially knowing that the person guilty of it, is still alive.

The man convicted, who will remain nameless, was recently sentenced to 66 years in prison. It's really hard to say whether T.I. would rather have his friend alive in jail for 66 years or having passed on. We can usually tell the mind state of an artist, in their work. Thinking about T.I.'s last two album releases, the man has been through a lot emotionally. Even though possessing machine guns is illegal, we really can't blame T.I. for having them in his possession. Until one has experienced the tragedies that this life can bring, a person cannot judge the actions of others, who have experienced them.