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T.I. talks a potential jumper off the ledge.

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I could totally understand people not hearing of T.I., obviously people who don't like hiphop (which is a whole shitload of people, no offense rap fans) aren't gonna pay much attention to the genre. Maybe they've heard a few TI songs on the radio (though would they even play TI on non rap stations?), but if they don't like hiphop they'd just brush it off and not pay attention to who the song was by.

Blackace said:
Lawl at the ATL people saying they never heard of him... Him and Outkast made your city international.. It would be like me saying "who is Nirvana?" or Pearl Jam or Quincy Jones...

But maybe you really don't know him....
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I think Atlanta was a pretty major city waaaaay before Outkast :P

surrealist said:
I like how people are offended because someone else doesn't know who their favorite rapper is.
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Agreed. Maybe because I listen to a music genre that's not very popular in America, but I am used to people not having any idea about it.
 
Blackace said:
What are you talking about? He has been in the running for world's best selling hip-hop albums in 2006 and 2008

And every faucet of MTV Europe, Japan, Aus... What more do you want for exposure? The guy only has been making selling albums since 2001...

With the exception of Lady Gaga and Cold play no one on the 50 mil and up have been selling since 2000...
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My point was just that he only sold 6 million albums overall so it's not accurate to call him one of the best selling musicians, even most big name active rappers beat him in career totals. If I was living in Europe or Asia I would probably have no idea who he is. On the US Billboard right now we have Far*East, Taio Cruz, Bruno Mars, Neon Trees, Mike Posner, Sugarland, and Wacka Flocka all in the top 50 and I have no idea who any of those people are. I haven't even heard those names in passing. This guy Fabolous almost has as many albums sold as TI and I have never heard one of his songs. I'm from a major city so I've heard his name in passing but I couldn't tell you a single song. Ludacris has sold twice the number of albums as TI and looking through his singles list I know 2 singles from him... a result of going to high school at the time.

If you listen to the radio in your car or watch a lot of TV or read entertainment or culture blogs, then yeah I would totally understand this being a part of your life. I don't have a car, I don't like TV, and I go to like 5 sites on the internet. You just listed MTV as being a reason for worldwide exposure on a video game forum.

I listen to punk and acoustic, I don't watch much TV, and when I do it's the History Channel. I would definitely google before I posted "Who is x?" But I can understand a lot of people having no idea who he is. That Rihanna song is nice but other than that I probably don't know any other songs by name. I'm not trying to be a dick here but a few of you seem to take offense that people don't care about hip-hop...



Lord Error said:
Seriously? That's like not knowing who Elton John is. They are not active nowadays but still, holy crap. Excusable if you're ten years old maybe.

Also, for those who don't know who T.I is, you have never heard this song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRVi0paZlfI&p

Then again, he's not exactly a household name, I'm pretty sure most people where I work wouldn't know who he is even if they knew that song.
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I don't deny I'm out of touch, but I'm too young to have been around when that stuff was popular. I don't listen to a lot of 80s stuff, and I don't go to bars or clubs at all. As in never.
 
Thunder Monkey said:
I've heard some of the musics he does, but I can honestly say I have no clue who this gentleman is.
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Can you really ever know who a gentleman really is. Until you put figs in his rectum, that is...
 
I wonder if this was some kind of publicity stunt,
so that the judge would take it easier on him.

(He coulda paid off the dude to act like he was going to kill himself.)
 
yeah this is the first time i have heard of him. And yes I live in the US. Its probably because I don't listen to the radio, watch mtv or listen to rap/hip hop that much.
 
equil said:
I wonder if this was some kind of publicity stunt,
so that the judge would take it easier on him.

(He coulda paid off the dude to act like he was going to kill himself.)
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office-carell57.jpg
 
Dead Man said:
What the fuck is wrong with people like you? It is natural, at least in the English speaking world, when seeing 2 initials to think that represents a given name and a surname. Given that, the article contributes nothing if the person is normally know as Tim Igshit. There are a lot of 'celebrities' that are known by all sorts of initialisms, acronyms, and pseudonyms, that change often. It is not that extraordinary that people thought it might be someone they recognised with a new bullshit name, or even that a poster could add some light on the subject without being a dick.

The article says TI is in trouble for drugs, that is about the background we get there. You can assume he is a rapper from the name of the website. That's it.
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First of all, I am not coming down on people who genuinely didn't know who T.I. was. If you thought the guy's name was Tim Igshit or what ever, that's fine, I'm not faulting anyone for that or not knowing every single American pop star.

The issue that I have is that there are a bunch of readily available resources to finding out the identity of the man T.I. without making a post along the lines of "Who the fuck is T.I." And one of these resources is right in the OP. If you and the rest of these "Who the fuck is T.I." posters had actually clicked to read the full article, you'd see it mentioned that T.I. is a rapper among other things.

But yet I'm supposed to "add light on a subject" for posters who don't want to read the full article or use google and instead choose to display their ignorance in a discussion that they don't even actually care about?

I don't know about you, but when I see a thread that I don't understand or care about the discussion going on in it, my first reaction isn't to post "What the fuck are you guys talking about?". For example if I saw a thread titled "Richard Dawkins gets attacked by a real Spaghetti Monster in Jerusalem while signing copies of his new book" and I didn't know who Richard Dawkins was but for some reason I wanted to participate in the discussion, I would either:

A) Go through the OP and find clues on Richard Dawkin's identity

and/or

B) Search for "Richard Dawkins" in a search engine.

This way I could actually add something relevant to the discussion beyond "Who the fuck is Richard Dawkins?" After I did these two things, if I still couldn't find any answers, THEN would I post asking who this man was. And even then, I wouldn't post something like "Who the fuck is Richard Dawkins?" unless I WANTED to generate negative responses.

But again, the issue here isn't that these posters (most of them anyway) don't know who T.I. is. The issue is that when it comes to American Pop stars (especially rappers/hip hop artists), it is "cool" to display ignorance as to who these people are.
 
I've heard of T.I., he's some rapper, but that's pretty much all I know. I've never checked out any of his songs, I don't listen to rap made after the mid-90s, and I can't believe that people expect knowledge of some rapper to be universally known. It's not like pop culture matters, people can have better things to do with their time.

I get the impression that this suicide stuff was probably staged. It's just too convenient for him right now if he's about to go to court.
 
You're not a better or worse person if you know who T.I. is. So please, both sides (well, mostly the "You should know him side"), don't act like this is the case.

I've never heard of him myself.

This story is a good thing (if it wasn't a hoax).

But again, the issue here isn't that these posters (most of them anyway) don't know who T.I. is. The issue is that when it comes to American Pop stars (especially rappers/hip hop artists), it is "cool" to display ignorance as to who these people are.
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For your information, my first thought was "Who the hell is T.I.?" as well. It's actually quite a common thought, especially because it's not a full name (in that case the first thought would be: I don't know him/her). You must be delusional if you think that people say that when they know he's a rapper/hip hop artist... the idea here is that people don't know who this person is. Don't act like everyone has an agenda.

Right now I have the idea that you think people should know all rappers and hip hop artists... even though there are plenty of people who don't listen to these things. More so than you think. Not a minority, a majority.

If some relatively unknown computer company named Banana goes bankrupt, people would have the same reactions as well. And they won't have personal agendas against fruit-named companies.

Extra edit: I don't feel like going in a loop with you but I'll re-quote you. This is an answer to your reply.
The issue is that when it comes to American Pop stars (especially rappers/hip hop artists), it is "cool" to display ignorance as to who these people are.
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It's very clear what you're saying here. And it's very ignorant, ironically. People don't do that, it's in your head.
 
Soneet said:
For your information, my first thought was "Who the hell is T.I.?" as well. It's actually quite a common thought, especially because it's not a full name (in that case the first thought would be: I don't know him/her). You must be delusional if you think that people say that when they know he's a rapper/hip hop artist... the idea here is that people don't know who this person is. Don't act like everyone has an agenda.
Click to expand...

I'm aware that some people genuinely don't know who T.I. is:

Kreed said:
First of all, I am not coming down on people who genuinely didn't know who T.I. was. If you thought the guy's name was Tim Igshit or what ever, that's fine, I'm not faulting anyone for that or not knowing every single American pop star.
Click to expand...

Kreed said:
But again, the issue here isn't that these posters (most of them anyway) don't know who T.I. is. The issue is that when it comes to American Pop stars (especially rappers/hip hop artists), it is "cool" to display ignorance as to who these people are.
Click to expand...
 
This is just a basic misunderstanding.

If a person assumes that T.I. is known to most, the thread title makes sense.

If a person doesn't know, it seems like an annoying "in the know" abbreviation that's somewhat disrespectful. But nope, that's the guy's (stage) name.

Fake outrage all around is annoying, though.
 
Ignatz Mouse said:
This is just a basic misunderstanding.

If a person assumes that T.I. is known to most, the thread title makes sense.

If a person doesn't know, it seems like an annoying "in the know" abbreviation that's somewhat disrespectful. But nope, that's the guy's (stage) name.

Fake outrage all around is annoying, though.
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I agree. I didn't like the people in this thread acting like T.I. is some small act that they shouldn't know.
 
mckmas8808 said:
I agree. I didn't like the people in this thread acting like T.I. is some small act that they shouldn't know.
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They probably (like me) didn't like being told that they must be living under a rock if they didn't know him. I had the same reaction as all the "who is T.I.?" people only I didn't post the question since it had been answered already.

Let's face it, few artists, even charting artists, are universally recognized anymore. I know plenty of hip-hop artists, but never heard of T.I.
 
Ignatz Mouse said:
They probably (like me) didn't like being told that they must be living under a rock if they didn't know him. I had the same reaction as all the "who is T.I.?" people only I didn't post the question since it had been answered already.

Let's face it, few artists, even charting artists, are universally recognized anymore. I know plenty of hip-hop artists, but never heard of T.I.
Click to expand...

It's one thing to not know who somebody is. It's another to be on the internet, on a message board and feign ignorance of the little things we call "search engines."

It's adorable that people are feigning indignation over being called out on their shit, but you know damn well if you came into a thread with "Ludacris opens new bar" and you didn't know who Ludacris was, you'd Google it. Unless, of course, you thought you were being clever by saying "HAHA first, it's ludicrous and second, an adjective can't open a bar!"
 
siddx said:
Having terrible taste and not enjoying hip hop isn't an excuse for not knowing whom TI is. He has sold too many albums, is in the news far too often, and has done enough work in movies that not knowing him is just willful ignorance. People's disdain for pop culture and/or modern music is odd in itself, but being so bitter and whiny about it that you practically stick your fingers in your ears and shut your eyes to avoid it in general is just pathetic.
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I don't frequent any music websites, and I get all my news from foreign sources. So, huh?
 
siddx said:
Having terrible taste and not enjoying hip hop isn't an excuse for not knowing whom TI is. He has sold too many albums, is in the news far too often, and has done enough work in movies that not knowing him is just willful ignorance. People's disdain for pop culture and/or modern music is odd in itself, but being so bitter and whiny about it that you practically stick your fingers in your ears and shut your eyes to avoid it in general is just pathetic.
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This is hilarious. Guess what, some people honestly don't give a shit about parts of pop culture, me included. You find that odd, what I find odd is the celebrity culture. A news story comes on about some celebrity doing something criminal or what have you and I just don't care at all. It's mostly with the movie/tv business that I am not aware of. Someone will be flipping out because...uh...Nathan Fillion is in some tv show or something. I couldn't identify that guy by a picture of him, I have no idea what he's been in, or anything else. I can guess that he's in some nerdy stuff since people here seem to like him. The only TV show I've watched in the last year is Top Gear and some HBO boxsets. I'll be going to see a movie and someone will say "oh so and so is in it". Almost every time I only recognize the name but would not be able to recognize the person.

I think a know significantly more musicians because I like music a lot more than any other media.

No, I don't do it to be 'cool', I just don't care.

EDIT: Fyi, I knew that T.I. was a rapper but I wouldn't be able to identify him and I can't name you any of his songs.
 
isn't T.I. the one who went to jail and then when he was released he made a song called something like "I'm back!" and then he went to jail again shortly after?
 
I have no idea who TI is, either.

The only reason I would have is if one of the few conduits to popular culture I have, i.e. South Park, GAF, SA, happened to mention them in a thread title.
 
His twitter is classic... he is responding to the people who think it was a stunt... which almost means it was lol
 
Eh, after some thinking, I realized I'd actually heard about T.I, despite not living in the US, listening to radio, or watching TV more than maybe 30 minutes every second week, as my little sister, and one of my friends, played that dreadful 'Whatever you Like' song over and over and over again back when it was popular

lightless_shado said:
Is he some sort of post-punk singer
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I think he's a crabcore vocalist?
 
Jim Stark said:
My point was just that he only sold 6 million albums overall so it's not accurate to call him one of the best selling musicians, even most big name active rappers beat him in career totals. If I was living in Europe or Asia I would probably have no idea who he is. On the US Billboard right now we have Far*East, Taio Cruz, Bruno Mars, Neon Trees, Mike Posner, Sugarland, and Wacka Flocka all in the top 50 and I have no idea who any of those people are. I haven't even heard those names in passing. This guy Fabolous almost has as many albums sold as TI and I have never heard one of his songs. I'm from a major city so I've heard his name in passing but I couldn't tell you a single song. Ludacris has sold twice the number of albums as TI and looking through his singles list I know 2 singles from him... a result of going to high school at the time.

If you listen to the radio in your car or watch a lot of TV or read entertainment or culture blogs, then yeah I would totally understand this being a part of your life. I don't have a car, I don't like TV, and I go to like 5 sites on the internet. You just listed MTV as being a reason for worldwide exposure on a video game forum.

I listen to punk and acoustic, I don't watch much TV, and when I do it's the History Channel. I would definitely google before I posted "Who is x?" But I can understand a lot of people having no idea who he is. That Rihanna song is nice but other than that I probably don't know any other songs by name. I'm not trying to be a dick here but a few of you seem to take offense that people don't care about hip-hop...
Click to expand...

Fabo is another big time rapper... Luda is another big time rapper as is like Jay-Z

All started making albums before 2000

In the age of torrentsites it is going to be hard for people to hit 50 million like they used to do... Lady Gaga is a beast and is not the norm

I listed MTV as worldwide exposure because it is. The dude is an actor, and is in video game sound tracks.

I guess I just happen to catch who is popular in all music.. I don't do it on purpose and I don't watch Mtv... it just happens...


For your information, my first thought was "Who the hell is T.I.?" as well. It's actually quite a common thought, especially because it's not a full name (in that case the first thought would be: I don't know him/her). You must be delusional if you think that people say that when they know he's a rapper/hip hop artist... the idea here is that people don't know who this person is. Don't act like everyone has an agenda.

Right now I have the idea that you think people should know all rappers and hip hop artists... even though there are plenty of people who don't listen to these things. More so than you think. Not a minority, a majority.

If some relatively unknown computer company named Banana goes bankrupt, people would have the same reactions as well. And they won't have personal agendas against fruit-named companies.

Extra edit: I don't feel like going in a loop with you but I'll re-quote you. This is an answer to your reply.
Click to expand...

actually no one is saying that people should KNOW ALL RAPPERS AND HIP-HOP artist... where you get that from I have no idea.. but T.I. is a household name in the genre, so people really do expect everyone to know him.. if you don't then you don't but it is really a minority not know big names from most areas of music...
 
The internet is too cynacle for me now, yeah a rapper is totally going to pay off some guy to threaten to jump off a ledge. both knowing full well that if the plan is ever found out they would be in a whole heap of legal trouble. (/sarcasm)

Most likely what happened is that a guy was really going to jump and T.I, realizing it would look good for his case, volunteered to talk him down. Was there an ulterior motive? Most definatly: Was the whole thing a stunt? No, no it wasn't

Honestly Gaf needs to stop watching so many movies...
 
nyong said:
How does one go from rapper to mental health crisis negotiator? I'm trying to picture the moment the professionals realized they failed and TI takes over the megaphone...


EDIT: http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/10/14/t.i.apology/index.html?hpt=T2

I'm leaning towards this being a stunt.
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Well, if it's a stunt, the whole Atlanta police department is in on it, too. Which would make for a hilarious Law & Order: Dirrty Souf, but probably isn't in line with reality. I guess we'll see.
 
WanderingWind said:
Well, if it's a stunt, the whole Atlanta police department is in on it, too. Which would make for a hilarious Law & Order: Dirrty Souf, but probably isn't in line with reality. I guess we'll see.
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Well, stunt doesn't necessarily mean the whole thing was a set up:

Harris told Lemon that he went to the scene after he heard on the radio that a man was threatening to jump.
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/10/14/t.i.apology/index.html?hpt=T2
 
WanderingWind said:
Well, if it's a stunt, the whole Atlanta police department is in on it, too. Which would make for a hilarious Law & Order: Dirrty Souf, but probably isn't in line with reality. I guess we'll see.
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would watch
 
nyong said:
Well, stunt doesn't necessarily mean the whole thing was a set up:



http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/10/14/t.i.apology/index.html?hpt=T2
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I don't get how that removes the fact that the police would have to be complacent in this for it to take place.

Article said:
Harris talked to the man about how a person "can make it through anything," Atlanta Police spokesman James Polite said.

"T.I. just happened to be in the right place at the right time," Polite said.

Harris told Lemon that he went to the scene after he heard on the radio that a man was threatening to jump.

The man, who was not identified by police, was taken to Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital for a psychological evaluation, Polite said. He was not charged with a crime, he said.
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dudeworld said:
isn't T.I. the one who went to jail and then when he was released he made a song called something like "I'm back!" and then he went to jail again shortly after?
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:lol

Yeah.
 
Blackace said:
Fabo is another big time rapper... Luda is another big time rapper as is like Jay-Z

All started making albums before 2000

In the age of torrentsites it is going to be hard for people to hit 50 million like they used to do... Lady Gaga is a beast and is not the norm

I listed MTV as worldwide exposure because it is. The dude is an actor, and is in video game sound tracks.

I guess I just happen to catch who is popular in all music.. I don't do it on purpose and I don't watch Mtv... it just happens...
Click to expand...


I wasn't trying to paint that as an insult, I just meant if you have no connection to MTV, a radio or hip-hop then it's perfectly understandable to not know who a lot of these people are. It's great that you're so connected to the world. I know a few of them from when I was in high school but it seems like some people in this thread are insulting others because they don't care about their favorite music genre. Music is subjective, I definitely recognize that they are talented producers and lyricists, but the end result isn't something I would choose to listen to over another artist.
 
Jim Stark said:
I wasn't trying to paint that as an insult, I just meant if you have no connection to MTV, a radio or hip-hop then it's perfectly understandable to not know who a lot of these people are. It's great that you're so connected to the world. I know a few of them from when I was in high school but it seems like some people in this thread are insulting others because they don't care about their favorite music genre. Music is subjective, I definitely recognize that they are talented producers and lyricists, but the end result isn't something I would choose to listen to over another artist.
Click to expand...

The end result is most of the people who just want to troll "hur hur who is TI?" know of him in some form or another.. be it from acting, headlines, or his music.. In some form r another they have been exposed to him. Maybe not by name but they know who he is..

Google would have filled in the rest of the blanks..
 
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