T.I. Crashes Billboard Album Chart at No. 4; ''TRAP MUZIK'' Debuts as the Hip-Hop Breakout of Summer.

Entertainment Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 27, 2003

Grand Hustle/Atlantic recording artist T.I. has made one of the year's most impressive chart debuts with "TRAP MUZIK," entering at No. 4 in the Billboard 200 national album chart, with scorching first-week sales of nearly 109,000 units, according to SoundScan.

T.I.'s breakthrough will come as no surprise to the crowds who've thronged his pre-release promotional appearances throughout the South or, especially, to the fans in T.I.'s Atlanta home base, who bought 20,000 copies each of the two underground mixtapes that he released locally. "I know what it takes to move my people," T.I. told an interviewer. "I knew I was one hit away from major success if I could just get my music out the right way."

In addition to the radio play of the album's lead single, "24's," spreading out of the South and Midwest, a Fat Cats-directed video has put the nightlife and lifestyles of Atlanta on display on such national video outlets as BET and MTV2.

"T.I. proves that the hip-hop underground is still the deepest and most active source of important young talent in music," Atlantic Records Co-President Craig Kallman commented. "This first-week performance is in no way an overnight phenomenon. T.I. shares a crucial model for success with the biggest hip-hop acts of today: they're self-starters who built a strong regional base by working the street, long before they were on the radar of the national media."

Kallman added, "We'll be seeing this album through many more months on the album charts with future hit singles like 'Be Easy' and 'Let's Get Away.' We know that 'TRAP MUZIK' will show tremendous staying power over time, and that this is just the start of a great musical and entrepreneurial partnership between the Grand Hustle label and Atlantic Records."

To say that T.I. laid his own groundwork is a major understatement: he's been rapping since age 9, signed a record deal at 19 and released one major-label album (I'm Serious, Arista, 2001) before joining Atlantic with his own Grand Hustle imprint. His guest appearances include Bone Crusher's single "Never Scared," with Killer Mike; and 2Pac's "Changed Man." The movers-and-shakers that populate "TRAP MUZIK"'s credits reflect T.I.'s standing among the major players of Southern rap: the album's production talents include DJ Toomp, David Banner, Sanchez, Carlos and Dada, and Jazze Pha, while Jagged Edge, 8-Ball and MJG, and Bun B of UGK all make vocal appearances on the album.

In addition to establishing his joint venture with Atlantic, T.I. runs an Atlanta construction firm with his uncle, and is also making plans to open a teen club -- both undertakings meant to help rehabilitate the hard place that he came from.

While "TRAP MUZIK" presents the unvarnished truth about the drug trade, as it pervades life and relationships throughout a community, it also reflects a life that's more complex than the stereotypes, knee-jerk assumptions and conventional wisdom would have you believe. "The street issues, the business issues, are not the only issues," T.I. told an interviewer recently. "I'm talking about everybody. Just as there are people who fall in love everywhere, there are people who are in living in traps, trying to get out of traps. Everybody's got a struggle, everybody's burden is heavy. Everybody should be able to relate. The world is a ghetto."