AP Photo/John BazemoreT.I. is hoping MTV will help him make good on his promise to turn his past crimes into something positive...and promotional.
According to Variety, the hit-making hip-hopster has signed a pact with the cable network to star in a reality series that follows him as he performs 1,000 hours of community service in advance of a one-year prison term next year resulting from a gun rap.
The self-proclaimed King of the South (real name: Clifford Harris) pleaded guilty in March to federal weapons charges for attempting to buy three machine guns and silencers in a shopping center parking lot hours before he was due to perform at the BET Hip-Hop Awards.
As part of a plea deal, T.I. was ordered to address youth groups about the dangers of guns and gangs, all of which will be captured by video crews. Depending on how well he fulfills that obligation, the 27-year-old rapper could end up with a reduced sentence. The MTV show will also, natch, help to hype the release of his latest record, Paper Trail, which drops Aug. 12.
"Hopefully the mistakes I've made will be a lesson to today's youth, and they won't go down that same path," the Grammy winner said.
MTV has ordered eight episodes of the untitled series. Shooting starts this summer and the show is expected to premiere around the time T.I. reports to a federal pen in early 2009.