Updated: 1:12 p.m. May 21, 2009
MUSIC
Change of scenery for T.I. next week
Sunday concert precedes his penitentiary stay
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
After he gets dressed Sunday at his 10,000-square-foot home and performs Sunday evening before thousands of fans in the cavernous interior of Philips Arena, Clifford Harris Jr. will move to much smaller quarters.
By Tuesday, Harris, better known as rapper T.I., must report to the low-security penitentiary in Forrest City, Ark., called FCI Forrest City Low. There he will take up residence in a modest-size cell.
John Bazemore
Rap star T.I. whose real is Clifford Harris talks with children at a day camp in Decatur, Ga., Tuesday, June 17, 2008.
T.I., with Grand Hustle artists
7 p.m. Sunday. $10-$36.70. Philips Arena, 1 Philips Drive, Atlanta. 404-249-6400; www.ticketmaster.com, www.philipsarena.com. MORE MUSIC NEWS: [an error occurred while processing this directive]
Whereas Harris, 28, was a one-man industry in Atlanta, operating a nightclub, record label and car-customizing business to name a few, his business dealings in prison also will be on a reduced scale.
After a wake-up call at
6:30 a.m. each day, he will report to work at 7:30, laboring as a food service worker, orderly, plumber, painter, houseworker or groundskeeper, or working at some other menial task, at a pay scale of 12 to 40 cents an hour.
It is a dramatic twist to the story of T.I., a hustler from Bankhead who rose to the top of the charts, even as his connection to the violence of the streets threatened his hard-won success. Thirty-two arrests, weapons violations and a conviction for dealing crack cocaine didn’t keep his CDs from going platinum or his singles from going to No. 1. But his material success also didn’t protect him in 2006 when his entourage was showered with bullets after a Cincinnati show, and his friend and assistant Philant Johnson was killed.
Then in October 2007, hours before he was to be honored at a BET awards show for CD of the year, he was arrested and charged with sending a bodyguard to purchase machine guns and silencers. Instead of standing before a cheering crowd, he was handcuffed and booked into jail.
Harris’ story would have all the elements of a classic tragedy, except that he is serving a fraction of the time he faced. His multiple weapons charges could have earned him 10 years in prison; instead he’ll serve a year and a day, complete 1,500 hours of public service and pay a $100,000 fine.
In the hip-hop community, that sweet deal is viewed with suspicion. “The oppositional story you hear is that T.I. is getting white justice, getting celebrity justice, getting a rich man’s justice,” said Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor and author of “Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice.”
The light sentence came as a result of plea agreement in which federal prosecutors decided to leverage Harris’ enormous popularity as a way to spread his message of contrition.
The arrangement has worked beyond their expectations, U.S. attorney David Nahmias said. Not only has Harris already completed 1,030 hours of public service work, talking to youth groups about staying in school, warning them against leading the life he’s led, but he augmented those efforts with an MTV series, “T.I.’s Road to Redemption,” documenting additional “scared straight” messages to youth.
“The MTV series was an extra bonus for the government,” Nahmias said. “It had a huge reach.”
It also didn’t count toward his service hours because, said Nahmias, Harris was compensated for the series.
Harris’ sentencing agreement requires him to complete an additional 470 hours of service after his imprisonment. He will remain on supervised release for three years, and must serve the remainder of 365 days on home confinement.
He has already completed at least 305 of those home confinement days, but those days do not contribute to the days he must serve in prison, said the U.S. attorney’s office. Depending on his comportment in prison, Harris’ 366-day prison sentence could be reduced by 15 percent — or about 54 days — for good behavior.
“It took me going to jail so many different times [to see] that I was wrong,” says Harris, during the MTV series. “I think this is kind of my defining moment.”
