T.I./Lil' Flip Controversy...

[Guest StreetzHopin]

T.I. upset about Lil' Flip calling himself "King Of The South"

TI, who mere days ago, was at the center of a prison escapee mishap, raised more eyebrows this weekend, when he aggressively challenged Houston rapper Lil Flip and accused him of trying to take his self-proclaimed “King of the South” title.

Just days after being accused of taping a video in jail without permission, the rapper called out Flip at his “welcome back” performance at Atlanta radio station 107.9’s 9th annual birthday bash.

“Me and that guy [Flip] have an issue man,” he revealed to AllHipHop.com. “He steadily saying that he don’t have an issue with me, but I have an issue. I’ve created an issue if that’s what they want to say.

Kanye West, Lil Jon, Lil Scrappy, Trilleville and others performed before TI took the stage.Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, TI performed and then broke into a tirade that lasted almost 15 minutes, all aimed at Lil Flip.

TI said the problems started when Lil Flip did several shows in Atlanta during TI’s incarceration.

“He was opening up his shows saying “Who’s the King of the South?” TI said. “When my name was mentioned, he’d say, “Oh yeah, well tell that ni**a TI I wrote this song for him’ and he’d go into [Flip’s hit] ‘Game Over.’”

In what is reminiscent of the well-publicized incident at Hot 97’s Summer Jam involving Jay-Z’s feuds with Nas and Mobb Deep, TI showed pictures of Flip on big screens, dressed in what one concert attendee described as “a puke green leprechaun suit.”

“He thought I was gonna be locked up for a lengthy period of time and he wasn’t gonna have to see me,” Flip said. “The ni**a just felt comfortable in my absence.”

Lil Flip, who was slated to take the stage after TI, never had a chance to respond because officials abruptly ended the show before the Houston emcee ever took to the stage.

And in the end, the video, which has officials at the Fulton County Jail pointing fingers at each after an inmate escaped, was never even shown.

On the video, TI apologized to fans for not being present to perform, due to his incarcerated status. The plan was for TI to appear on the stage to surprised audience members.

“The deputies and the sheriffs were kind of bogarting the screen to keep me from playing the so it never got shown,” TI said, but noted that there was an upside to being muscled by the law.

“I couldn’t pay for this kind of promotion. In this industry, I have been told many times that all publicity is good publicity, all press is good press. When Peter Jennings carries you on the news, you are one of the biggest rappers in the world, it’s got to be positive, even if its in the midst of something negative.”

TI’s next album, Urban Legend, is set for release in November.

Lil' Flip's response

Houston rapper Lil Flip has issued a detailed statement to rebuke TI’s comments against him during a concert in Atlanta, Georgia.

During his performance, TI dissed the Houston, Texas lyricist and showed pictures of him in a green leprechaun outfit, often seen on his first album. Flip, who was scheduled to go on as the headliner, never had a chance to perform, as the event was quickly ended.

"I hear TI is on stage with like 20 of his men supposedly ready to confront me when it was my turn to take the stage,” Flip said in a statement. “First of all, I was late and it was supposed to be over. At that point the police and the venue people kept us off the stage, they were gonna shut it down and leave.”

Flip said that TI was on the stage angry, claiming that he was the "King of the South."

Rather than claiming the throne for himself, he gave the title to one of rap’s living legends.

“Everybody knows the real king of the south is Scarface,” Flip said adding that he didn’t even know TI. “If we wanna talk who’s hotter, I’ve been all over the mixtape scene, now I’m all over the mainstream scene, off the strength of my own hustle.  A lot of people have been coming at me, and I really don’t have the time to address all of them. Like they say; mo' money mo' problems.”

Despite the insults hurled at him, Flip said that he didn’t need any more attention being drawn to himself.

In March of 2002, Lil Flip was shot and wounded as he was leaving a Houston recording studio.

“I’ve been in so much beef in my life, I’m happy to be here and still be living. I don’t know if dude’s been through half of what I’ve been through. I’ve been living with some real demons in my life, and niggas that know my story know what’s up so I don’t need to do anything extra to draw more attention to myself. I mean, I hear he’s calling out my peoples Luda and DTP too so I guess it’s just part of the game for him, a publicity stunt to move some more units. I guess he’s just mad cause I f*ck with everybody else in ATL but him. Look at my album; I got Pastor Troy, Luda, Killer Mike and Baby D. ATL is like my second home.”

While TI claimed that Flip started the troubles at shows in Atlanta by bad mouthing him while he was incarcerated, Flip stated there was a more frivilous reason for the friction.

“I guess he’s mad ‘cause he did a verse for the Game Over remix and I didn’t use it. Bottom line, I’ve put in my time. If he wanna take it there, I mean he got a team, I got a team too, so its whatever. Otherwise, go find another way to sell records ‘cause I am selling records.”

[thatshortguy]

Um, yeah, Big Boi & Outkast called. They said this lil' spat is cute and all, but told me to tell them to come back when they've made one of the most influential albums of the last decade.

[Lord Nibbler]

Scarface, OutKast and Ludacris are all waaaaaay closer to the throne than all these flavour-of-the-month 'crunk' rappers.

Edited June 22, 2004 by Jimmy the Exploder