Neil Drumming of Entertainment Weekly stated "The Atlanta native breaks his fifth album, T.I. vs. T.I.P., into three acts depicting an ideological battle between split personae: the irascible thug T.I.P. and the nouveau-riche recording artist T.I. It ain't Shakespeare, but the dual protagonists make for an intriguing bout."[22] Tom Breihan of Pitchfork Media noted "T.I.'s new album, T.I. vs. T.I.P. operates on the thin and dubious concept that T.I. the businessman and T.I.P. the unreformed hustler are two completely different entities, and that the strain of balancing the two personas is enough to tear Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. apart. Apparently, those two sides aren't as indivisible as they once seemed. T.I. first explored this dichotomy on Trap Muzik's "T.I. vs. T.I.P.", crafting an argument that movingly dramatized his internal struggle. That struggle also serves as the concept for the new album: T.I.P. gets the first seven tracks, T.I. the next seven, and the two sides spend the last four songs hashing out their differences. It's an interesting conceit, but it doesn't really work as a hook for an entire album, and the record's exhaustingly long running time pushes the conceit far past the breaking point. For one thing, it's a pacing disaster; by lining up all his sugary for-the-ladies tracks in a row, T.I. leaves a long dead-streak in the second half of the album. For another, it plays against his strengths. His music works best when both sides of his personality are allowed to co-exist in the same track. When they're separated, they both sound emaciated and half-formed. And he never quite commits to the concept. If T.I. represents the rapper's pop half, why do the album's first two singles come from the T.I.P. section? If the album's final stretch is meant to unite both sides, why do they confront each other in song only once, on the second verse of "Respect My Hustle"? Even if the concept falls flat, though, T.I. vs. T.I.P. still warrants a listen, if only because T.I. seems constitutionally incapable of releasing an album full of uncompelling music. As a rapper, he's still a dominant voice; his slurry, guttural drawl is a great instrument, and always keeps it deep in the track's pocket, occasionally whipping out tricky double-time patterns or murmuring singsong melodies. The album is perhaps best heard in chunks; only a few of these songs wouldn't sound great on shuffle. Heard as a piece, though, the album's momentum sputters and dies more than once; after a few consecutive listens, T.I. sounds dour and joyless, like he's just punching the clock. T.I. vs. T.I.P. may be self-obsessed and self-indulgent, but maybe T.I. needed to make this album to keep himself interested. Let's hope he's gotten it out of his system."[24]
T.I., Trap Muzik Full Album Zip
Colin McGuire of PopMatters states "Here, he overshadows any work hehas previously done by keeping his Southern hip-hop roots intact while putting just enough attention on the hooks that one could easily find half of these songs that paint T.I. vs. T.I.P's canvas on your favorite Hot 100 radio station. And he does it better than he has ever been able to do it before. Harris has come a long way from initially snapping back as the rubber band man. And now, with another hip-hop masterpiece under his belt, maybe Cohen can have a laugh himself as well."[25] Ian Cohen of Stylus Magazine stated "The biggest failing of T.I. vs. T.I.P.: though his singles are obsessed with knowledge of self and others, during the span of a seemingly endless album that centers around an identity crisis, T.I. mostly fails to realize the difference between introspection and self-absorption. It's more of a hastily assembled construct grafted onto the persona of a generic trap star who doesn't seem capable of taking real artistic chances. In his mind, anyone who criticizes T.I. is "just another hater who's broke again," waiting for some backpacker epiphany that will never come, like Little Brother becoming commercially relevant or Freddie Foxxx coming out of hiding to lyrically knuckle this guy down. It's like T.I.'s been speaking in code to us all along: What you know about that? You know what it is. You don't know me. But you know what? After spending hours with T.I. vs. T.I.P. chasm-like emptiness, I can't see why anyone would care."[27] Nick Marx of Tiny Mix Tapes noted "After reaching his creative apex, is there a more predictable and plodding step down for an artist than a concept album? Did anyone even know (or care) that the two iterations of Clifford Harris' moniker represent, respectively, his business and street sides? T.I. vs T.I.P. is mercifully light on the requisite skits illustrating its dichotomy, but you almost wish there were more of them to explain the album's weird alchemy of simultaneously overwrought and undercooked production and flaccid, self-absorbed lyricism."[28] Brendan Frederick of XXL Magazine notes "Atlanta rapper Clifford Harris opened this old wound four years ago on "T.I. vs. T.I.P.," a highlight from his sophomore opus, Trap Muzik, where T.I.P., his reckless, shit-talking core, battled T.I., the consummate professional/smooth operator. After a tumultuous 2006 filled with highs (King solidified his place as one of hip-hop's illuminati) and lows (the senseless murder of his best friend), Tip re-examines his schizophrenic psyche on his fifth album, T.I. vs. T.I.P. Call it trap therapy. Hopefully, someday we'll find out what really makes T.I. tick."[29]
ZONE 1Zone 1 is home to Bankhead and the Bluff, the titular drug market of the film Snow on tha Bluff. Apart from inspiring Freaknik-era shoulder-dance craze the "Bankhead Bounce," Bankhead is also T.I.'s old stomping ground and the setting for his 2003 genre-christening album Trap Muzik, which may make it the original trap in trap music. Incidentally, Zone 1 is where FDR built the country's first public housing project, Techwood Homes, arguably the first trap in history.
The East Side is also a perfect microcosm of Atlanta's development chaos, with ritzy brunch lofts built directly overlooking some of the most dangerous projects in the city and multiple apartment complexes that claim the title "Little Mexico." (Shootings have thankfully come down enough to obviate the old sobriquet of "Little Vietnam.") It's an area in such churning flux the Zone 6 cops are still on the lookout for gangs that disbanded years ago and think new gangs whose members we met in person are just urban legends. Basically, it's the most confusing, fucked-up, exciting trap in America. No wonder God lives here.
HipHopDX: The album Trap Muzik came out in 2003. Now pop singers like Kelly Clarkson and Taylor Swift are singing over productions that have remnants of trap beats. Do you think that the trap music bubble has burst now that has transcended Hip Hop? I ask you, Tip, being that you said earlier this year that you created trap music.
It's still debatable if Trap Muzik is the album that actually gave the self-proclaimed "King of the South" his crown, but it did at least give T.I. the throne for king of the trap. Obviously, music about trapping and the word "trap" itself existed long before this 2003 release from a then 22-year old rapper. But no one, even in Atlanta, was rooting their entire musical identities in the idea so deep that they would go so far as to name their album after it. Up to this point, Atlanta was either bouncing and booty shaking, nodding to Dungeon Family's heartbeat, dancing to So So Def's hits or getting hit by crunk's elbows. Any music that dared to talk vividly about the Black Mecca's underbelly of poverty, crime and drugs (i.e. Ghetto Mafia, Hitman Sammy Sam) was considered underground. What kept Trap Muzik above water is that T.I. didn't just rap about the lifestyle, he could make hit songs about it. 2ff7e9595c
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