The Existentialism and Excellence of T.I.

Look around. What do you see? What do you really know about that? You could be looking at an abstract painting, a friend who won’t skedaddle or your own hand. Most things are just that things. We can’t even explain them, T.I., the enduring ATL rapper, understands, he knows all about that. But what is “that”? How would we know? T.I. tells us over and over again “U Don’t Know Me.” Elsewhere, he tells us “You Know Who.” Who is the who? Is it the enigma himself or is he playing us?

T.I. raises other existential questions such as “Why You Wanna.” No question mark but I’ll assume it’s applied. Why do I (or we) wanna? We have to take all this at face value; his debut album is literally titled I’m Serious. He titled another album T.I. vs. T.I.P., which is an alter ego. Science has this to say about alter egos:

Several scientific spheres seek to understand this psychic instance. Physics, biology, theology, philosophy and psychology have already performed some advances in this direction, raising always the eternal question addressed by man throughout history – who are we? 

 Is T.I. trying to tell us something.

A Brief Summary of T.I.’s Existentialism 

"What Happened?" 
 "Why I'm Serious"
 “I’m Serious” 
"What's Yo Name" 
"T.I. vs. T.I.P." 
“U Don’t Know Me” 
"What They Do" 
“My Life” 
“What You Know” 
“Why You Wanna” 
“You Know Who” (But DO we??) 
“You Know What It Is” (But DO we??) 
“Show it to Me” 
“What Up, What’s Happenin’” 
“Can You Learn” (Can WE?????) 
“Ahh No No”

Smarter people than I need to figure this out. To T.I., truth is elastic. After all, he is the "Rubberband Man."

The Avalanches and Freddie Gibbs

Pure Bliss.

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