Outside of his lyrical ability, T.I. is known for his savvy business moves and eye for talent. Yet, he's been hard on himself for his connection to Iggy Azalea. During his latest appearance on the Breakfast Club, T.I. explained why he decided to part ways with the rapper.
"I feel like she was meant to be great," Tip said around the interview's 23-minute mark. "As far as I'm concerned, I feel like when she found out white people liked her and she didn't really need black people to like her anymore, she switched up, started acting different, made moves that I wasn't proud of, that kind of placed my reputation in the line of fire. And she was very arrogant about it. ... The raps were dope at first, you know what I mean? Of course, she had...help," T.I. said with a laugh, responding to Charlamagne's suggestion the word he was looking for was "writers."
"It was dope at first, and then she exposed herself so much," he went on. "And I feel like it just kinda—it undid all the good that was done."
T.I. executive produced Iggy's breakthrough project The New Classic. The album was commercially successful and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart. The fame she gained from the record must have affected her relationship with Tip as he decided to step away from her career following the release.
This isn't the first time T.I. has touched on his rift with Iggy. During an interview with The Root, Tip stated that he needs to find another woman artist to undo the "blunder" that was Iggy Azalea. "That is the tarnish of my legacy as far as [being] a [music] executive is concerned," he explained. "To me, this is like when Michael Jordan went to play baseball."
T.I. did use his time on the Breakfast Club to talk about rappers he deeply admires, following his reigniting the top 50 rappers debate when he put together a list of his own. Because it's coming from an accomplished rapper like T.I., the show's hosts wondered if he got any blowback from artists that did or didn't make the list. The rapper revealed his close friend and fellow ATLien Killer Mike did call him about being No. 50 on the list. "He said, 'People really want me to be upset about this but I can't. What does it mean to be last place in first-class?'" Tip recalled around the four-minute mark.
"Hov called me," he continued. "We were talking about something else completely non-related and then he said: 'Oh and by the way, you really believe that?'" T.I. had JAY-Z ranked at No. 2 on his list, behind Tupac.
Watch T.I.'s full appearance on the Breakfast Club above.
Iggy caught wind of T.I.'s latest comments and shared her side of the situation. "When will this guy shut up," she wrote on Twitter. "The only song you ever were a part of making was “100.” Thankyou for that, but you were NOT a part of the creative OR executive process on that album. Which is why I’ve always taken issue with you trying to approximate yourself with it’s success."
She added: "Please move on and speak about artist you are (hopfully) actually helping, and stop trying to bring me up for relevance. I don’t bring your ass up, NO ONE is asking about you. I’m tryna be nice because I genuinely have better and more interesting things happening."
Check out her response below.
