VIDEO: T.I. Talks New Album & Why Mike Brown Incident Was “Catastrophic” on ‘Larry King Now’

T.I. hit the ground running this week to promote his latest offering, Paperwork.  The highly anticipated album is T.I.’s 9th studio album. Early reports are predicting that Paperwork will return an estimated 70,000 in first week sales. This is not comparable to the rapper’s last project Trouble Man: Heavy Is The Head, which sold 179,000 units in the first week. Nevertheless, T.I. has a consistent track record of producing albums that go gold or platinum. So, with touring and more promotion, there’s no doubt that Paperwork will eventually go gold.

This week, Larry King invited T.I. on as a special guest on “Larry King Now.”   The two discussed various topics, which included the new album and the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson, Mo.

The Grammy award winning artist is now signed to Columbia Records. He departed Atlantic Records in 2013. T.I. spoke on how he had creative freedom to do whatever he wanted on the album.

“For this project, we’ve had the most creative freedom and ability to do whatever inspires us creatively.” He also explained what’s changed about the rap and hip-hop industries since he first started making records over a decade ago, “I think it’s a lot more saturated. I feel that there are definitely ways around the conventional methods of being discovered and breaking into the industry now.”

Pharrell Williams is the executive producer on Paperwork. T.I. expressed how much of a genius Pharrell is as a musician and producer. The two also went on to much deeper topics like race relations in America.

T.I. was one of the artist who spoke out against the Ferguson riots early on. He felt as though the citizens were handling the situation the wrong way. His initial reaction, as told to Larry King, was that the killing of Michael Brown was an extreme incident.

“Man I just thought it was catastrophic. I felt it was an extreme tragedy and extremely unfortunate I mean for the nation. Of course for the Brown family our hearts, prayers, and condolences go out to them, but for the nation to go through that again so soon after Trayvon Martin and you know it – America was already very tense as it pertained to race relations and young black men and how they’re treated in America by authorities – by authority figures.”

T.I. also talked about other things such as Raven-Symone’s dislike on being called African-American, in which he says she had an incredible point. And what many of his fans may not know, is how T.I. is a big collector of socks!

To check out “Larry King Now” and its upcoming schedule, visit Ora.tv.

Paperwork is in stores and on iTunes now!