T.I. Raps on Gun Rap

Tue., Nov. 13, 2007 1:25 PM PST by Josh Grossberg

"The king ain't dead."

That's the official word from T.I., the rapper otherwise known as the King of the South, about felony weapons charges that could land him some serious prison time.

Breaking radio silence, T.I. issued his first official statement in a brief video posted at streetcred.com, a social-networking site he started. Dressed in a bathrobe, he addresses the camera from a room in his suburban Atlanta residence, where he is currently under 24-hour house arrest with electronic and human monitoring.

"I know a lot of people are concerned given the current situation, and I want to say thank you for all the prayers and support coming from my fans and supporters," says the "Hurt" emcee. "You know, it's a very trying time right now, but I want to let everybody know that I pled not guilty and I...got to stress my innocence, you know, to everyone out there who's listening.

"I look forward to being exonerated on all charges, and I say that with the utmost sincerity and I really want to stress that to you, you dig?"

T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., then thanked his legal team and his judge, for allowing him "the privilege of house arrest and being here instead of, you know, the clear alternative."

It comes at a heavy price, however.

Although his girlfriend and children are allowed to stay with him, the 27-year-old hip-hopster must have all visitors to his home cleared by the court, which means subjecting his friends and business colleagues to background checks—and he can only have three visit at a time. Last week, the rapper submitted an invite list for Thanksgiving dinner to be vetted by the judge. (The blowout meal was eventually scuttled over prosecutors' objections.)

As part of a "package" of conditions that allowed his release on $3 million bond, U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Baverman also ordered T.I. to abstain from drinking alcohol and avoid all contact with witnesses or informants in his criminal case.

T.I. was arrested Oct. 13 after allegedly trying to purchase three machine guns, two silencers and a pistol in the parking lot of a metro Atlanta shopping center. The bust came hours before he was due to perform later at the BET Hip-Hop Awards and capped a two-week sting operation carried out by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The bureau was tipped off by his bodyguard, who was serving as an intermediary.

T.I. was convicted on drug charges in 1998 and sentenced to seven years' probation. As a convicted felon, it's a federal crime for him to possess any firearms.

A grand jury indicted him on two felony counts, possession of unregistered weapons and possession of firearms by a convicted felon. If found guilty, he could get up to 10 years in the big house and a $250,000 fine per count.

In his online message, T.I. also pleaded for the benefit of the doubt.

"I just want to tell everybody, man, don't believe what you hear in the news and what you read in the papers," stated the entertainer.

As for how he's passing the time, T.I. revealed he's moving ahead with his next record.

"The good news is I have a lot of time on my hands, doing a lot of reading, doing a lot of writing, working on my next album. It's called Paper Trail," he added.

Despite his home confinement, Harris has been pretty visible lately. He appears opposite Denzel Washington in the hit movie American Gangster and has popped up on Big Kuntry King's first single, "That's Right," the video for which just premiered on Streetcred. And last week's episode of NBC's 30 Rock dropped his name in a subplot, as a rumored guest at Kenneth the Page's party.