T.I. talks about protesting at Trump Tower
T.I. may have a new name, but his values haven’t changed. The 36-year-old rapper visited “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Thursday, where he opened up about protesting the recent election results and changing his name to TIP.
The father of seven happened to be in the recording studio around the corner from Trump Towers in NYC when a large group of protesters took to the streets outside the president-elect’s building to protest the surprising results of the election.
When Kimmel asked T.I. why he chose to make this statement, he replied, “Nobody in their right mind can ever assume that just gathering and going somewhere and showing your incredible disdain for a decision that the nation has made that that will actually do anything immediately.”
But T.I. (aka TIP) did say that his decision to participate came from the example he wants to set for his children.
“I voted and I’ve done everything that I could prior to now, but after the decision of the election happened, I just want to be able to look my kids in the eyes and make sure that they know that I did everything that the Constitution allowed me to do to show my objection to this decision,” he said.
Trump took to Twitter early Friday morning and addressed the protesting happening around the country. “Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country,” he wrote. “We will all come together and be proud!”
The rapper went on to open up about his new album, “Us or Else,” agreeing with Kimmel that it could be called a “protest album.”
“It’s protesting against police brutality. It’s in memory of all the young men and women who have lost their lives at the hands of law enforcement unnecessarily out there in the communities with no accountability whatsoever,” he said. “I just really want to see the nation head in a better direction.”
He also explained the name change from T.I. to TIP, saying, “TIP is my name, that’s my childhood name that was given to me by my father.”
Kimmel thought T.I.’s real name was Clifford, to which he quickly replied, “That’s my government name that absolutely no one ever calls me -- judges, policemen and bankers are the only ones.”
The musician also explained how he ended up dropping the “P” in his name originally.
“I found myself in very good company on the same label with Q-Tip, and L.A. Reid, at the time, he felt that it was kind of confusing having two TIPs on the same label,” he said.
