Because the song at No. 25 is what it is.
Sure, the lyrical gun talk (gats in waistbands, pistols shoved in faces, a Frank Lucas namedrop) and trigger-cocking sound effects are a little more icky now that the author of No. 25 is under house arrest for a federal gun charge, but the sly “You Know What It Is” is still a highlight on the anticlimatic T.I. Vs. T.I.P.. While I’m always gonna be a sucker for T.I.’s sidling drawl and taste in button-ups (little anchors!), after about the sixth iPod rewind in a row I realized this song had lodged into my brain thanks to the maddening plink-plonk beat, a backing track catchy enough to survive a shouting Wyclef repeatedly rubber-stamping the fact that he was one of the guys who helped cook it up.
T.I. – “You Know What It Is” [YouTube]
T.I. [Official site]
Idolator’s 2007 Top 40 List Of Awesomeness
I love Wyclef and tried to love this song but it never got to me. Neither has Wyclef’s latest, although the remix with Raekwon is kinda tight.
Good to see someone else listing this song somewhere, really one of the best singles by a major artist this year that didn’t do too well because it was following up a total turd.
This is my favorite rap song this year not named “International Players Anthem”.
Love love love this song, which is the best on a pretty meh album. Great pick!
If he’s not on the perfect beat, he’s exposed as the mediocre rapper he really is. The only songs were the listening to on the coaster he released last year were the songs with Jay-Z and Eminem. Maybe prison will work out for him and he’ll learn to rap.