T.I. Claims He Made Up the Story About Snitching on His Dead Cousin
T.I. is setting the record straight after being called a rat by Boosie BadAzz due to Tip admitting in a 2020 podcast episode that he snitched on his dead cousin. Now, the Atlanta rapper is saying the entire snitching story was fiction.
On Tuesday (Feb. 21), T.I. sat down for an interview with YouTube channel Trap News Network to discuss him making headlines after Boosie revealed he'd scrapped their joint album because of backlash he received because T.I. admitted to cooperating with police on a decade's old gun case Tip caught with his cousin. T.I. said he was in fact making up a story in the now-infamous clip.
"It came from a conversation that my partner and I were having," T.I. said at the 5:55-mark in the video below. "That conversation was, 'Hey bro, if me and you catch a case together and I die before you, it’s mine.' He was like 'Nah, I can’t do that.' [I said] 'Yes you can. It’s mine. Why can’t you? I don’t understand it.' He said, 'Nah, I can’t do it.' You know what I mean? He said, 'I can’t really say nothing about anybody who do, but I can’t do it.'"
T.I. continued: "So off of that conversation, I created a set of circumstances. You know what I mean? And I thought that the embellishment was clear when I said I talked to my cousin and he told me..."
The interviewer then prompted T.I.’s response by mentioning that "they didn’t get the satire, they didn’t get the change in inflection of voice, they didn’t get the fact that you was basically being sarcastic."
"Humor, satire and sarcasm, it escaped them," T.I. agreed.
That wasn't the only outlet T.I. delivered a message clearing his name on Tuesday. He also hopped on social media to call out Boosie.
"Idk if it's you or ya 'OG Uncle' that needs to see it... but I GOT MY PAPERWORK ready to show!!!" T.I. captioned video of Boosie's recent interview, referencing Boosie saying his uncle told him not to put the album with Tip out. "PULL UP!!! My number the same & my address the same my nigga. To get on da net & speak on shit you've never spoke to me about is leaving me to believe you been hiding ya heart the whole time!!!!"
T.I. then called Boosie out for never checking any official documents before alleging T.I. ratted.
"I'd NEVER speak 'certain disrespect' on your name/reputation bout a 'IF' homie... da convict code say When in doubt...pull the paperwork out!!!" T.I. continued. "'IF' you ain't did that...Now ... Idk what type of time you on but I say again... 'IF' it was a question or confusion bout anything I said you could've called and asked .... so u can report back & tell ya 'OG' ...or you could've pulled up & checked the blk & white like I'm offering now.
"Either way tho my nigga ... I ain't bound to no nigga's opinion of me," he added. "’Cause what dey 'THINK' will NEVER overrule what I KNOW!!! So don't wonder no mo' homie.... answer the 'IF'... PULL UP & report back to da rest of these niggaz who opinions matter so much to you. Cause I could Give a Fuck bout what no nigga think bout me!!!"
The Grand Hustle spitter concluded by expressing disappointment in his former frequent collaborator.
"'The tail shall never wag the dog' Leadership Leads.... wit facts and stats... we don't follow no fantasyland shit...remember that!!!" Tip concluded. "I ain't bending my knees for nothing or fearing nothing but GOD!!! So cmon & see what you speaking bout so next time you can speak intelligently. @mamaheliveagain.2.0 I expected more from you. This shit ain't solid. obviously I thought we WAS something we WASNT."
The issue between Boosie and T.I. began on Monday (Feb. 20), when VladTV released its new interview with Boosie where the Baton Rouge, La. rapper went off when asked about T.I. admitting to snitching on his own dead cousin in a resurfaced podcast interview from 2020.
"With the T.I. situation, if he did that, you a fucking rat, too," Boosie said at the 3:52-mark of the interview below. "I don't spare no-muthafuckin-body. Because if you doing anything wrong and you cooperate with law enforcement to get you out of trouble, that means you're cooperating. That means you're a rat."
Still, Boosie was willing to admit that T.I. could be lying.
"But I'ma tell you like this," Boosie continued. "When I saw that, I think T.I. fucking lying. I think he went up there and got to fucking talking. You think something happened at 17, 18 years old, right. How vocal he is. You gon' hold that in all them damn times? All this damn time, for 20-something years, you gon' hold that in and it finally came out?"
The crux of the situation stems from a statement T.I. made on a recently resurfaced podcast episode from 2020 where he said he told on his cousin who died after they caught a gun charge together.
"We caught those gun cases, Toot died," T.I. explained on the show. "My lawyer said, 'Well, you know, I could make everything go away if it was Toot’s, it was Tremel’s.' After he had passed, I had a talk with him. Toot said, 'I’ll take all the charges you got. If you can walk away free and put it on me, goddamn right. ‘Cause I’ll be damned if they gon’ come and muthafuckin extradite me from here.'"
Apparently, as T.I. has noted, the snippet was taken out of context.