T.I. opened up about some of the reasons why he votes during a recent sit-down for VEVO’s “Why I Vote” campaign.
Before discussing the Reagan-era crack cocaine epidemic, the ATL heavyweight, who will not be voting for Donald Trump, first discussed the criminal justice system and how it has affected him throughout his life.
“I grew up on the West side of Atlanta, late ‘80s, earlier ‘90s,” he said. “That’s when you started experiencing people being gone for a long time. Like, ‘You heard about such and such? Man, he just got 15 years. He just got 20 years.’ As a child, it gave you an early understanding of where this environment can take you. Like, ‘Wait a minute. Is this gonna happen to me?’”
T.I. also shared a personal experience of how losing a relative to the criminal justice system affected him.
“My uncle, that was the first person who I knew that went to prison,” he said. “They gave him 10 years for conspiracy for distribution of cocaine. It was kind of unreal to me. That was the only person who took some real time to mold me as a man, and when he went away, it was ridiculous. It was like ‘nah, nah, this ain’t real. You mean 10 real years?’”
TIP later spoke on the crack epidemic that ignited during President Reagan’s tenure in office. The war on drugs rages on today and was addressed by a Jay Z-narrated op-ed last month.
“The war on drugs was formed because of crack cocaine,” T.I. continued. “Crack cocaine was introduced to the Black neighborhoods. Nobody just all of a sudden learned how to put baking soda with water and cocaine to make a cheaper version that’s more potent. We ain’t no damn chemists and scientists. We didn’t come up with that.”
Elsewhere, TIP also outlined why he thinks privatising the prison system is wrong and unconstitutional.
The full video can be viewed below:
“We ain’t no damn chemists and scientists. We didn’t come up with that.” No the People you bought it from taught you that and you cooked and spread that shit to make money into your own pocket and suddenly its the white mens fault. Nice Story bruh
he votes because minorities have been conditioned to vote democrat for decades. democrats play the race card telling them that there whats best for them ,that republicans are all rich racist assholes who hate them and want to keep them poor, that is why they have been poor and nothing has changed for decades
there is nothing scarier then an idiot who doesnt realize hes an idiot but thinks hes smarter then everyone
Bro. Leave Trump out of this.
But I feel you. I’m still trying to figure out how can a felon vote in Georgia anyway. If rules have changed, I am unaware.
Ti sucks chock
Because he is stupid enough to believe in the lie that is called western democracy. It doesn’t matter which puppet you vote, same hand is holding both. Republicans, democrats, Trump, Hillary – Nothing more than different masks on the same face of the “hidden hand”. The rest is all a show, including the whole government/opposition setup.
here we go with the crack conspiracy. like it was impossible for any black person to figure it out or hear about it somewhere. it was all sesame street until the government taught black people about baking soda. ignore the fact that these same communities had heroin and cocaine problems for decades prior.
How is he able to vote if he’s a convicted felon?
T.I is a stupid fucking House NIgga
I wasn’t aware that felon idiot midget shoe-shining c00ns were even allowed to vote.
What a dumb chimp, trying to fill out his ballot by writing with a banana, SMH.