Urban Review: T.I. - Paper Trail

Today is Thursday October 2nd and that means everyone has had 2 whole days to listen to the new TIP album, Paper Trail (with the exception of you bootleggers). We’ve had a chance to listen to the album, bump it at high volumes in my apartment and write up a fire review for you haters out there who haven’t got the album yet. Randall Ells, aka. Pinky came through as usual with some nice review material. Check it out after the jump.

Review by Randall Ells

The highly anticipated album Paper Trail from T.I. finally dropped on Tuesday, September 30th after the initial pushback from its first release date of August 12th. The album currently has several songs rotating on radio stations nationwide, which include “No Matter What” and “Whatever You Like”. The album also has a lot of tracks with features including artists such as Rhianna, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Ludacris, and Swiss Beatz.

Atlanta’s based T.I. started working on his new album while he was under house arrest for gun charges stemming from an incident in November of 2007. The decision for Paper Trail as the album title came from T.I. due to his decision of writing his lyrics on paper for the album.

The first single off of Paper Trail, “No Matter What”, was released back in May along with the music video. This single proves T.I’s excellent lyrical ability to deliver a track with excellent flow and rhythm as well. Another addictive track is “Live Your Life,” which is a sappy pop collaboration that finds Rihanna using the notorious vocoder on the song’s hook. The second single on the album, “Whatever You Like” (my personal favorite), was released for digital download in August. This single climbed to the number 1 spot on September 6 for the Billboard Hot 100, as well as setting a new Hot 100 record for the biggest one-week jump to the top position going from 71 to number 1. Another amazing track, “Swagga Like Us” produced by Kanye West is arguably one of the best collaborations that T.I. has ever done. It has the ever so popular featured guests Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne. With those three in the track, who could argue?

Other than Tha Carter III, this is one of the best albums that has dropped this year and is definitely T.I.’s best album. Paper Trail is a well crafted album that will receive all the popularity that it deserves. Paper Trail once again proves that the only thing that could possibly take T.I.’s crown away is a felony record and a prison sentence. So with all that said, go out and buy this album because the King of the South deserves it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm and is filed under album review, ti. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.