The new album Paper Trail is an excellent album showing a whole new side of T.I.. He continues to fill the shoes of his nickname, The King, with this great album. This album is much different than his previous albums. We see a new mature man who has learned from his mistakes, and is ready to move on. Ready for Whatever is probably my favorite song from the album, because of how much meaning it has. In Ready for Whatever T.I. explains his whole recent ordeal with the law rapping:

Now is it that hard to understand if you listen
Die or go to jail that’s a hell of a decision
But I’m wrong and I know that my excuses arent important
I’m just trying to let you know that I ain’t think I had a choice.

T.I. lost his partner Philant Johnson in 2006 and he explains how he was paranoid and mentally this is what he felt he needed to do. But T.I. doesn’t hesitate to say he was wrong and that he made a mistake. With this song he just wanted to explain the whole story and that he wasn’t, “just being stupid..”

Paper Trail features many artists including Ludacris, Rihanna, Usher, Swizz Beatz, Jay-Z, Kanye West, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Lil’ Wayne, and B.o.B. Now don’t get me wrong the album isn’t just filled with featured artists, the album still has 9 songs with just T.I. rapping. This is great because it makes the album very balanced keeping it from being too much “mainstream” music. Some people may be a little surprised to see Ludacris featured on this album because of the past beef T.I. and Luda had. T.I. is trying to move forward and leave all that in the past. In an interview with allhiphop.com’s Kathy Iandoli T.I. was asked how they managed to do a song together (Wish You Would) and here is T.I.’s response:

I told you, I’m done with all that. When I say I’m done with that, I ain’t just talking you know? I’m doing everything in my power if I can to move forward, and that’s just an example of that. But you know me and ‘Cris have always spoke. We never had no problems – we speak, he has my number. I have his. It’s always been that way. I’ve never known – and I’ve went at it with a lot of cats – but I’ve never had such worthy competition.

Right now the most popular track on iTunes from this album is Live Your Life featuring Rihanna. This song is great with a good club beat to it and even has much meaning to it. The song explains the life of famous music artists and how they are just living their life. Here’s an excerpt from the first verse:

Nevermind what haters say, ignore them ’til they fade away.
Amazing they ungrateful after all the games I gave away.
Safe to say I paved the way, for you can’t get paid today.
You still be wasting days away, nah had I never saved the day.

Another great song from this album would be You Ain’t Missin’ Nothing. This song is probably the deepest song on the album, addressed to everyone in prison. The song is very relaxing with a great beat and flow to it. Listening to the lyrics and how deep they are definitely adds a great feeling to the song. The song lets them know that they, “ain’t missin nothing,” T.I. starts the song off with this message:

Hey.. Say pimp, this to everybody stretched out behind the wall,
Countin’ days on their calendar..
Flippin’ pages, month to month
Hey man.. I don’t give a damn ’bout how other folks treat you man
I just wanna let you know pimp,
You ain’t missin’ nothin’ homeboy
Real Talk

Now listening to the whole album I most definitely do not have a song on this album that I dislike. I can just stick this CD in and let it play, not worrying about skipping any songs. The album is very deep with lots of meaning and is not just another regular old rap album. This album really shows a different side of T.I. He definately can keep his nickname, “King of the South” with this one. I give Paper Trail 4.5 out of 5 stars.

You can purchase the deluxe version of Paper Trail here: and the regular version here:

If you like the album please support T.I. and purchase the album legitimately.

I was one of the first 250 people to pre-order Paper Trail!