(Photo Credit: Prince Williams/Getty Images)
We can all agree on T.I. being one of the most versatile artist in the rap game right now. But does all his success and talent compare to the great Tupac Shakur? He sure does think so.
On Tuesday (Mar. 12), the Atlanta rapper took it to Instagram and compared himself to Tupac saying : “Any way you slice it… I’m the very best at what I do… impossible to duplicate… accept no substitution!!!” with a collage of him. He the added “When you get done buuuulsh***in’… Riddle me this…. Who since 2Pac has maintained as much consistent diversity within music genres, businesses & other opportunities? I’ll wait…”
As always, somebody jumped into his comments and disagreed. The fan said “Jay-Z” and T.I. responded saying, “respectfully to da goat…what major feature film he [starred] in?”
In XXL’s 20th Anniversary Issue, T.I. gave credit all the rappers that paved the way for him and current rappers contributing to the culture saying, “I don’t wanna say that I had any more of a contribution than anyone else, just because we all—as storytellers—put our lives to music and offered it to the world. The more we offered, the more they wanted. I think that was just as true for me as it was for anyone else.”
He then said, “so, I don’t ever wanna say or ever think that I had any more of a contribution than anyone else. I think all of us—collectively —the community of hip-hop, the community of us all kinda put our lives on these songs, created these projects over time and used our life experiences,” he continued. “And, you know, put slices of it in videos, or used our taste to comment on fashion pieces and did collaboration.”
“Every last one of us that did something with a major corporation where people had not done business with hip-hop people in that corporation before,” he added. “Each and every last one of us who done that did something to open the door for it being the biggest genre today.”