T.I.’s been heavy on the promo trail for the upcoming film Ant-Man. The hip-hop superstar will be starring in the Marvel Studios film for the first-time as a superhero. T.I. will play the role of Dave, a buddy of Scott Lang and a member of his heist crew. The film hits theaters on Friday, July 17th. However, as the “Family Hustle” star continue to raise the bar to his acting career and reality television business ventures, T.I. hasn’t forgot about the music. On October 10th, T.I. will release the second part of the Paperwork trilogy, The Dime Trap. He recently sat down with ComicBook.com to more about The Dime Trap and discuss his role in Ant-Man, transitioning from music to acting, and his familiarity with comic books. Here are a few excerpts from his interview: On why he decided to do Ant-Man… It is. I just thought it was an awesome opportunity. To be in the Marvel Universe is just awesome. It was a no-brainer for me. Initially, when you think about, a $250 million project that you’re invited to join onto, you immediately assume that it’s going to be very tense and rigid and there’s not a lot of fun involved and the people would be difficult to deal with but it was nothing like that at all. You know, it really felt more boutique, independent, kind of. It was just a strong sense of comradery on set and I really appreciate that. On how did he prepare for the role of Dave… Honestly, from the readings to even on set, they told me nothing. They told me these guys are friends. They told me you’re gonna be the driver and the navigation, you know, they told me a lot of technical stuff but they didn’t tell me personality-wise. I don’t think they expected it to seem so comedy-driven. I think that was a lot of on-camera chemistry. We got to sit and we were working together, Michael Peña and I, and Paul and Dave… We just had a banter that produced the energy that you see on stage. Excuse me – on screen. I got my jobs mixed up! [Laughs] On whether he read comic books growing up… I had a summer. I was maybe 10, 11-years-old. I collected about 31 X-Men, Wolverine comics. At that period in my life, I was very knowledgeable of the X-Men. That was my thing. I never really got too far outside of X-Men but the X-Men series, I was intrigued by it and Wolverine was my favorite by far. But by the end of the summer when I was going back to school, because I’d travel a lot between New York and Atlanta to visit my father, somewhere when I got back to Atlanta I lost the whole collection. I was like… I couldn’t start over. I just couldn’t bring myself to start it all over again. But that was my comic book stint. On what’s next up in his music career… Well, Paperwork it was a trilogy. The thing is, they aren’t directly associated. The next one is… How can I explain this? Okay, so Paperwork was all types of music. The one that just dropped, it was cinematic in a sense that it felt like it pulled from classic R&B, soul, funk, and the music that we did kind of stayed within that. Originally, it was supposed to be six songs, six songs, and six songs to make a 18 track album which is obsolete in this day and time. So everyone was like, “Why don’t you take these six songs and make a different album, take these six songs and make a different album, and then take these six songs and make a different album.” So, all three of them are done. I’m just releasing them separately which is my 10th album and it is subsequently called The Dime Trap. It is a lot more urban, a lot more edgy, a lot more unapologetically ghetto than Paperwork. Paperwork was more like an art gallery piece. The final installment will be somewhat of a love story. It’s like 808s and heartbreaks. A guy in the ghetto’s version of what loves means. The ups and downs and plights. The good, the bad. That’s the third one. The Dime Trap, I am currently tweaking and mixing. The songs are there but we’re just getting all the rest of that completely. I’m going to present it October 10. For films, I’m currently in the midst of shooting a film with Jamie Foxx and Gabrielle Union in Atlanta. Read more…. Shout out to Tip for doing it big in Hollywood! In case you missed the trailer for Ant-Man, watch it below:
