T.I.

Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (born September 25, 1980), known professionally as T.I. or Tip, is an American rapper and actor. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Harris is credited as a pioneer of the hip-hop subgenre trap music, along with fellow Georgia-based rappers Jeezy and Gucci Mane. He met local music executive Kawan "KP" Prather in the late 1990s, joining his company Ghet-O-Vision Entertainment — an imprint of Arista and LaFace Records — by 1999. The lukewarm critical and commercial response of his debut studio album, I'm Serious (2001), led him to part ways the label. He then signed with Atlantic Records and found mainstream success with his subsequent releases, co-founding his record label imprint, Grand Hustle Records, in 2003.

Harris gained recognition following his guest appearance on fellow Atlanta-based rapper Bone Crusher's 2003 single "Never Scared" — his first Billboard Hot 100 entry. His second album, Trap Muzik (2003), peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 chart and spawned the top 40 singles "Rubber Band Man" and "Let's Get Away" (featuring Jazze Pha). The following year, Harris guest appeared alongside Lil Wayne on Destiny's Child's hit single "Soldier", and capitalized on this with the release of his third album, Urban Legend (2004). His next three studio albums each debuted atop the Billboard 200; his fourth and fifth, King (2006) and T.I. vs. T.I.P. (2007), were led by the Billboard Hot 100-top ten singles, "What You Know" and "Big Shit Poppin' (Do It)", respectively.

Harris' sixth album, Paper Trail (2008), yielded his furthest commercial success, receiving gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its first week. It spawned two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles: "Whatever You Like" and "Live Your Life" (featuring Rihanna); the latter replaced the former atop the chart, and made Harris the first rapper to do so while occupying its top two positions. Following an eleven-month incarceration, his seventh album, No Mercy (2010), witnessed a critical and commercial decline, rebounded by his eighth album, Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head (2012). Harris also guest appeared alongside Pharrell Williams on Robin Thicke's 2013 single "Blurred Lines", which peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100, and did so in 22 other countries.

The following year, his contract with Atlantic expired; he signed with Columbia Records and enlisted Williams as executive producer for his ninth studio album, Paperwork (2014). As with his previous, it reached number two on the Billboard 200 and saw positive critical reception. The following year, he worked further with album collaborator and then-upcoming hometown native Young Thug to form the short-lived hip-hop collective, Bankroll Mafia. He then signed with Jay-Z's Roc Nation in 2016 to release his political Us or Else (2016–2017) extended play series and compilation album, We Want Smoke (2017); he later signed with Epic Records in 2018 to release his long-delayed tenth album, Dime Trap, in October of that year. His eleventh album, The L.I.B.R.A. (2020) was his first to be released independently. His twelfth and final album, Kill the King, was released in 2026.

Harris, a three-time Grammy Award winner, has been described as a leading figure in hip-hop and Southern hip-hop during the 2000s. He has received 19 nominations for the award, as well as 12 Billboard Music Awards, 3 BET Awards, and 2 American Music Awards. Prominent industry artists have signed to T.I. through his Grand Hustle Records label since its formation, including Travis Scott, B.o.B, and Iggy Azalea. In his acting career, Harris has starred in the films ATL, Takers, Get Hard, Identity Thief, and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Ant-Man and its sequel, as well as the reality television series T.I.'s Road to Redemption, T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle, and The Grand Hustle. As an author, he has published two novels: Power & Beauty (2011) and Trouble & Triumph (2012). By the end of the decade, Billboard ranked him the 27th best artist of the 2000s.