TI.jpgT.I. has landed a role opposite two Academy Award winners in the Universal Pictures film American Gangster. In the film, Denzel Washington will play a 1970s drug lord who smuggles heroin into Harlem inside the coffins of soldiers returning from Vietnam. Russell Crowe plays a city detective on his trail. T.I. will play the nephew of Washington's character. “There’s a bunch of Academy Award winners on this cast and I’m just there to learn. I’m in school,” the Atlanta rapper told Billboard.com. Ridley Scott, who directed Crowe in Gladiator, will also helm American Gangster, which commenced shooting this week in Queens, New York. T.I. is also reportedly at work on T.I. vs. T.I.P., his fifth studio album.

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