Idolator

As part of his recent plea bargain, T.I. will spend at least 1,000 hours of 2008 speaking to youth groups about how you shouldn't take drugs, roll with gangs, or have your bodyguard buy illegal fire-arms outside a shopping center for your private stockpile. Requests for such speaking engagements are already starting to roll in. "The idea really is he can get through to kids and fans like nobody else can," Steve Sadow, T.I.'s lawyer says. "Why not take advantage of what may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?" That's a lot of hours, though; he might show up at the same place twice. And what kind of messages can these audiences expect? Judging from his lyrics, he may already have some of his speeches ready to roll.

The "I regret everything" speech, from "I Still Ain't Forgave Myself," on I'm Serious:

At 14 man, thought I knew everything
I'm slangin slabs, trappin hard, movin heavy 'cane
I bought an '85 cutlass on some dane-a-danes
Now I'm the shit, huh, the motor blew in 30 days
Hardheaded man I ain't listen to anything
I'm getting money so, I'm right and I got plenty game
Besides why I need school, Im'ma be rappin momma
If that don't work, then I guess Im'ma be trappin momma
And yea they say I cant blame myself
But I still ain't forgave myself
Fo the mistakes made on this road to wealth
I still ain't forgave myself
Guess this the chance that you take, when dealt the cards I was dealt
But I still ain't forgave myself
For anybody who ever wondered how I felt I still ain't forgave myself (Ain't Forgave myself)

The "I'm a lost cause, but you're not" speech, from Trap Muzik's "Be Better Than Me":

I never know whether I'm livin fo tomorrow or dyin fo today
But either way I'm tryna move a hundred dymes in a day
They sat that crime don't pay, but I'm gone stay on the grind in the A
Wit the same ole j's I know the lames gone say that I done changed no way
I'm in the gutta everyday tryna slang mo yay
...So be betta than me
I know ya mamma waitin faithfully on her baby to graduate ya see
You way betta than me
Betta than us, betta than this, take a chance nigga change some shit
You could be betta than me

The "fuck it, it's too late for you, so just be on your game" speech, from T.I. vs. T.I.P.'s "Dopeman":

Now once you flipped a couple o's know the game get gravy
Take twelve fifty go git ya two and a baby
Yeah sixty three grams if you whip that right
you should get back five or six that night Stack that money and repeat that twice
Buy you somethin' to ride in, ya gotta be tight
Next time you buy somethin' take twenty-five hundred
Get four and a half it come back in nine don't it
Now stay low key when the money keep comin'
Keep some niggas on ya team to show these suckas they don't want it
By then your connect will clearly see you on ya grind
Shit you come to get a nine and he front you what you buyin'
As long as you bring back your money on time
And if you snort blow, do it on your own time
At this rate you'll be at a brick in no time
They say the want some weight, tell them niggas stand in line

Maybe this is what his life has been building towards.

Requests roll in for rapper T.I. to speak to groups [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via SOHH]
T.I. Lyrics [OHHLA]