God gave me an opportunity, this is my platform for me to reach people.I tell everybody like my mother told me, it's not what I make, it's what I share. That's why I'm still here because I share a lot.
Mr. TI talk to people and show 'em how to solve their problems and stop sitting around and complaining. So I just give people little T-isms, so that when they hear my story they know where I'm coming from and that I'm real.
Mr. TI have the mohawk,even though people still call it the mohawk I say "I don't wanna be disrespectful to the Mohican Indians but there is a tribe in Africa called the Mandinka warriors." They're in the west coast of Africa in the country of Mali.I was reading National Geographic Magazine back in 1977, and I saw the warrior standing there with his spear and his beads around his neck and whatnot and the stuff on his ankles. That was what gave me the idea, I said "Wow, let me bring respect to them," so basically what I wear is called a Mandinka cut.
Mr. TFor my job, I act tough. I'm not tough. On the street, I don't go out beating people up and this and that. I used to joke one time on the television station that I never... Everybody that I beat up deserved it. I never beat up an innocent person.
Mr. TEverybody wants the easy stuff, "Okay, I wanna be a rapper. I wish I could fight in order to get more money." They see the finished product, they see this guy Derek Jeter hitting the homerun and whatnot and say "Ooh, I wanna make $20 million a year," but they didn't see him playing sandlot ball.
Mr. T