T.I. on Justin Timberlake: ‘I think he’s one of the greatest to do it’

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2012 was a strong year for rapper T.I. His legal problems are but a thing of the past. His reality TV show, The Family Hustle, continues to do well, wrapping up its second season, and he finally delivered a proper comeback album with Trouble Man: Heavy Is The Head.

TheGrio caught up with Tip to discuss his latest role on the big screen, what he thinks of his friend Justin Timberlake’s return to music and if a possible collaboration is on the way.

theGrio: You recently had an acting stint on Boss, and Trouble Man came out and has done good numbers and received great reviews. All in all, where are you at for the top of 2013?

Domination man. Just trying to dominate, that’s all it is to it. Point blank period.

Slideshow: theGrio’s top 10 albums of 2012

Trouble Man felt like you were just trying to introduce clarity your legal situation that’s been with you for the past 2 plus years. But more than anything else, it seems like you were done apologizing and were ready to get back to the music that made you successful.

Yea man. That’s accurate. People who I don’t know, like critics from blog sites and magazines, they took that as I was apologizing to them. They couldn’t have bumped their heads any harder. I was apologizing to myself and to those people around me who depend on me to open doors for them. Because I felt like I had failed them. But a lot of my messages come through my music. So I was really using my music to set the record straight and apologize to the people who I felt deserved it.  So, I think Trouble Man is clarification. It’s clarifying myself and correcting their misquotes of facts.

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“Boss” was cancelled unfortunately but when will be the next time we see you on the big screen?

I have a film coming out on February 8^th called Identity Thief, with Melissa McCarthy. I play a guy named Julian, the J is silent, a mob-hired bounty hunter.  A Mexican Mafia drug lord sent me with his girlfriend as a bounty hunter/hit-man to take care of Melissa’s character. [Melissa’s character] was an identify thief and she had some kinda dealings with my boss that went south. So he’s sending us to do the job for him.