T.I. has claimed in a new interview that not only could he read before entering kindergarten, but “everybody knew” he was smart from an early age.
Earlier this month, T.I. sat down with Atlanta’s Uptown Comedy Corner to discuss his early beginnings, how he got into Hip Hop, and his recent entry into comedy. During the conversation, the King of the South also revealed that along with music, he had another talent at an extremely young age — reading.
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T.I. claimed that prior to entering kindergarten, he had the ability to read, and that “everybody knew he was” smart. However, he had no idea where he learned the skill and that no one had taught him.
“Everybody knew I was smart. I started reading before I went to kindergarten,” he said. “Don’t nobody know how I learned how to read [or who] taught me how to read.”
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As a young boy, the rapper recalls being passed a newspaper and asked to read it in public. “That was kinda like my grandma’s [way] to impress her friends, [she would] call me like ‘Tip, come here, read this’.”
Check out Tip recalling his reading skills below:
It’s not the first time the rapper has discussed the skills he possesses. While speaking with Shannon Sharpe on his Club Shay Shay podcast in January, he likened himself to a hybrid of JAY-Z, 2Pac, Diddy and Snoop Dogg, and explained how he took pages out of their respective books to mold his career.
According to the King rapper, he can hop in and out of different spaces thanks to the legends he idolizes. “I see myself as a hybrid kind of between, I guess, Jay, ‘Pac, Puff and like a Snoop, you know what I’m saying?” T.I. explained.
“I kind of hop in and out and take pages out of the book of legends, and I’ve been fortunate enough and blessed enough to be able to have these relationships where I could sit and engage and soak up game.”
He added: “People like E-40, people like Too $hort, people like IQ, people like Master P, people like J. Prince, people like Russell Simmons, people like Puff, People like Jay, you know what I’m saying.”
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T.I. has become a legend in his own right, ushering in trap music which has gone on to become more than just a sound in the culture. He dropped his debut album, I’m Serious, in 2001 which was poorly received commercially. However, T.I. found his groove two years later with his sophomore album Trap Muzik which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart, moving 110,000 units in its first week.
Since then, T.I. has earned three Grammys, built a discography that includes seven Top 5 records on the Billboard 200 chart and a successful film and television career.
