Video Breakdown: T.I.‘s “I’m Back” (Review & Video)

T.I. is the undisputed king of the south. F#$% what you heard and F#$% a mixtape. And while we’re at it F#$% a video too. As far as marketability, likeability and street cred T.I. is the Jay-Z of the south. It doesn’t get any better than him. He’s finally out of the pen and he’s got heat to take to the streets. Follow us this week as we break down T.I.’s video for "I’m Back".

T.I. can sell records. He’s gone platinum on 5 separate occasions in his career. He can put asses into seats. He practically sells out every venue he performs at. So what gives with the video for his new single I’m Back off his horridly titled upcoming album “King Uncaged”? Did he leave his sensibility Georgia in the federal prison system? Has Atlantic lost faith in one of their top artists? Don’t get me wrong, the video is actually pretty good, but it surprises/scares me when an artist of T.I.’s caliber and selling power is releasing black and white HD videos that could have been filmed by following him around with a handicam for a day. Watch for yourself and judge:



Like I said before, this isn’t a particularly bad video, it’s actually well done. If you want to see real crap go to worldstar and watch one of the hundreds of street videos that get released there everyday. But one thing is certain, I can assure you this didn’t cost more than $10,000 to make. If the budget was any higher than that then someone got screwed (whoever paid for it). T.I. is great when he performs and oddly I never seem to tire of watching the trapping/hustler narratives that we so often see in 99% of all rap videos. Nice cars (Lambos), pretty scenery (Atlanta), and T.I. in the studio are all nicely spliced together to make this video interesting for us viewers. There’s even some pyrotechnics/computer-generated flames. I dare you to guess which ones are which. One gripe I have, however, is the random flashing between black and white and color. Sorry, I feel like I’m having a seizure or something.

So T.I., Atlantic records what’s your excuse? Is this just a street record so you couldn’t justify spending money on a video? I don’t buy that excuse, Hurt was just as street, if not more than Hurt (to make it worse, if my memory serves correct, that video came out during T.I.’s gun trial). Hurt had a much higher production value even though it was black and white as well and damn grimey (in a good way). Is it too soon to start dropping real decent sized budget videos? This is the first single off the album and the album’s coming out this summer, so now would be the perfect time to start doing building mainstream buzz. The most likely answer is that Atlantic is cutting back on spending for T.I. in this case because they know that the people that are gonna listen to/watch I’m Back (his street fans) are used to a lower standard of quality for their music videos and therefore demand/expect less. They’re probably cutting the corner on this one because they know they can get away with it, and they’re probably right (but that doesn’t make it right).