But unlike the deafening self-aggrandizing of the hip-hop echo chamber, where a lot of loud barking comes from a lot of little dogs, T.I. had the resume to back his new, elite title. A short rundown: he is the founder and CEO of his own Grand Hustle Records; he is the recipient of numerous Grammy, Billboard, and BET awards; he's recorded hit songs with true super-duper stars like Kanye West, Rihanna, and Justin Timberlake; he's managed to go platinum in the era of file-sharing, numerous times; and according to the ladyfolk I had in asking distance, he's not too hard on the eyes. T.I. has also made the move into the world of acting, landing roles in the film ATL; appearing alongside Denzel Washington in the great American Gangster; and is executive producing and acting in this summer's Takers where he rounds out a true all-star cast that includes Matt Dillon, Idris Elba, and Hayden Christensen, among others.

When making the transition into new ventures in life or business, T.I.-who sometimes sounds more like a self-help book written in the first person than the thug persona he's more famous for-is always open to advice. "I never thought I knew it all," he describes to Smoke with his syrupy drawl and unmistakably southern emphases ("business" is pronounced bee-iz-ness, the word "is" is mined for a extra syllables that few other accents could muster). "So, whenever I have the opportunity to be around people who have made it to where I am trying to be, I take their advice-sometimes even when I don't agree with what they say. Because I know somewhere in there is the key to get to where I'm going. In regards to acting, Denzel was cool enough to sit down with me and chop it up on American Gangster. One thing I took away from him was when he told me 'Do the thing that made them call you for the job. Do you.'"

Of course, this art of the "do you" wasn't exactly new to T.I. It's that subtle mixture of biography and personal mythologizing (with just a twist of embellishment) that hip-hop empires are built on. T.I's story begins in the Bankhead neighborhood of Atlanta where he was raised by his grandparents. He soon found himself on the wrong side of the law as a small time drug dealer who by age 14 was already weaving in and out of correctional facilities. Eventually he turned his attention to rhyming and began to make his mark as a mixtape bard of Dixieland street life. Along with a few other notables, T.I. was one of the leaders of the new southern hip-hop explosion, a phenomenon he describes as being "more about the skills behind the words than the words themselves. In New York, it's about actual articulation of lyrics, but in the south it's about feeling the vibe. It's like, I ain't even saying this correctly but you know what I'm saying. You get a fix on what I'm feeling." And millions of fans have gotten a fix on what T.I. is feeling. Such as on 2006's Grammy certified smash "What You Know" featuring an epic synth hook underpinning T.I.'s signature brand of slangy braggadocio, backed by an overdubbed chorus of T.I.s-an army of T.I.s-chirping in with Eh-OHs and Yeeeahs throughout the track. It's one of the best hip-hop tracks of the aughts.

Fast-forward to today, T.I. can be found at A-list gatherings clinking glasses with glitterati and industry movers, gracing the covers of various magazines, or hamming it up on the talk show circuit with Larry, Ellen, and Howard. But what this former hustler is most notorious for is the part of his life he now wants to get farthest away from.

Even as this neighborhood troublemaker evolved into a genuine global superstar, he would find the destructive parts of his past were never too far behind. A close friend of his was shot and killed outside a post-concert show in 2006. And with hip-hop's recent history, T.I. took understandable (and what would become regrettable) decisions to protect himself. In 2007, just hours before the BET Hip-Hop Awards in his hometown of Atlanta, T.I. was arrested on federal weapons charges after his bodyguard purchased automatic weapons and silencers from an undercover federal agent. After submitting a plea bargain, T.I. agreed to a fine and a reduced sentence. So, in May of 2009, one of the biggest stars in rap began his sentence of a year and a day in federal prison.

While doing his time, T.I. realized that something had to change when one of the most successful artists of the past decade ends up locked in a cell. "One thing about prison that really touched me, that showed me that I really fucked up is: I consider myself fairly intelligent, but I still ended up in a place with bums, crack heads, and idiots. And I'm lying right here next to these people that out in the street that I wouldn't give the time of day. So I had to look at myself and ask 'how much better than them are you?'"