T.I. has written so many lyrics in his life that remembering most of them has apparently become a struggle.
Speaking to HipHopDX on the red carpet at the 2023 BET Awards in Los Angeles, the Atlanta rapper admitted that he has a hard time recalling the majority of his rhymes and offered some insight into his memory struggles.
The Grand Hustle honcho explained that songs are a “snapshot” of the moment they were written and said he’s often impressed when he hears some of his old lyrics.
“I cannot answer that question definitively because I don’t even remember most of the lyrics that I wrote,” he said when asked about his most underrated verse. “That’s the beauty about art as it pertains to music in Hip Hop because it’s about the mindset of the person at the time the song was created.
“So as soon as that song was created, once you walk out that booth, once you walk out that studio, you continue to live life, your mindset, your consciousness evolves, but the song is stuck in that moment, you see what I’m saying? So it’s a snapshot of that moment.”
He added: “We can listen back and be proud. I still to this day hear a lot of songs that I’ve written, a lot of verses that I’ve spit and I’m like, ‘Damn, okay. I had a hell of a perspective at the time.'”
T.I. isn’t alone. Eminem and Lil Wayne have previously admitted they have to research their own lyrics to avoid repeating lines that they may have forgotten.
“When we first start out, it’s a blank canvas,” Em told Wayne during an appearance on his Young Money Radio show in 2020. “We start painting on that canvas until that shit’s full. But when you’ve made so many song about everything, it gets a little tricky. The trick is to do the next one and keeping it going, do the next one with a little twist.”
Weezy then revealed his Google search history includes “Lil Wayne lyrics” because he’s constantly checking to see if he’s repeated himself.
“If you look in my phone history, with Google history, and you press the letter L, it comes up ‘Lil Wayne lyrics,’” he said. “I literally have to Google my own lyrics to make sure I didn’t say certain stuff before.”
Eminem replied: “Oh my God! I swear to God I do that too! I just did that shit last night. Man, that’s funny as hell. I been doing that for the past five years! You be like, ‘Oh, I knew I flipped this before.’
“It’s crazy because when you’re really into the craft you gotta come up with a new pocket, a new cadence, melodies. You can’t do the same flows, none of that.”
That makes 2 of us
You know as a super supporter of the music since 84-85… i am sick of newer artist saying that. It’s tiering and terrible. Money is not always going to be poping for some. That’s blatant and a little sad- Shows will most likely be the source of income for some artist later in life. SHIT HAPPENS. can’t get booked.. a lot of 80’s/90’s artist make money of shows due to life situations. DOC lost his voice in 1990, some rappers have podcast now because their music don’t pop anymore. There are not many LL’s Nas’s, Jay’s (make money outside of hip hop – slick rick’s, Kane and many other super great artist’s tour. Of course, MC, Lyte, KRS and D-nice- do a plethora of shit, but in closing penmanship and taking the craft seriously and respectfully takes us a long way. We never know where life takes us. HUMBLE is the best way- respectfully and knowing you are blessed. If you don’t remember your lyrics- either you don’t take it seriously or you ARE CAPPING. either way is horrible for the sport, culture and genre. Who’s gonna respect US .. WHO?
You know as a super supporter of the music since 84-85… i am sick of newer artist saying that. It’s tiering and terrible. Money is not always going to be popping for some. That’s blatant and a little sad- Shows will most likely be the source of income for some artist later in life. SHIT HAPPENS. can’t get booked… a lot of 80’s/90’s artist make money of shows due to life situations. DOC lost his voice in 1990, some rappers have podcast now because their music don’t pop anymore. There are not many LL’s Nas’s, Jay’s (make money outside of hip hop – slick rick’s, Kane and many other super great artist’s tour. Of course, MC, Lyte, KRS and D-nice- do a plethora of shit, but in closing penmanship and taking the craft seriously and respectfully takes us a long way. We never know where life takes us. HUMBLE is the best way- respectfully and knowing you are blessed. If you don’t remember your lyrics- either you don’t take it seriously or you ARE CAPPING. either way is horrible for the sport, culture and genre. Who’s gonna respect US .. WHO?
After a certain amount of time, it’s understandable that you’d forget a lot of the lyrics. When you put on shows, it’s mainly the hits and the biggest records over and over. So after 5+ albums with a bunch of filler songs that never get performed, it’s probably pretty easy to forget a lot of those.
T.I. doesn’t remember his own lyrics because he makes forgettable music!
Rubber band man…….
Illuminati has push that button on him