T.I. visits S2S and he brings his crew and Tiny with him.

"I got a call that the King of the South, Clifford "Tip" Harris, better known as T.I., would be able to come by my Maryland farmhouse for the interview we'd been planning. He finally found a minute to do it in between radio station visits and a sold out show later that night. The catch was, he was bringing about 20 guys with him. Whoa!

When they pulled up into my yard the big ol' guys jumped out of three of those great big ol' black whips that reminded me of I, Robot when the robots jumped outta their big truck and tried to kick Will Smith's butt. Except these guys weren't energetic that day. They were tired. They had driven 200 miles from New York early that morning, done radio shows, checked into the hotel and they still had to get ready for the show that night at the fabulous DC nightclub Love, where tickets were totally sold out.

But guess what?! There was one female rolling with T.I.'s crew and that was Tameka Cottle, the mother of his youngest child, King. You might also know Tameka as "Tiny" from the R&B group Xscape. (You know Tiny wrote the TLC hit "Scrubs" with Kandi from Xscape.) I was so excited to see her with her tiny self. She just kind of grinned because she knew I would be pleasantly surprised when she and T.I. had her sneak up on me! I just grabbed her and kissed her.

Later, when I tried to get information from Tiny about her new group Ga. P featuring her and Keisha from Xscape, T.I. broke in to say that she's quit that group! "She ain't doing that no more," he said. "She got kids at the house." (Tiny laughed at him, so I'll assume he was joking. She didn't say nothin' though.)

While his crew tore through barbecue chicken wings, greens and potato salad in my kitchen, T.I. and I snuck up to a private room where he shared his thoughts about losing his best friend Philant Johnson in a horrible Cincinnati shooting, providing for five kids, keeping his daughters away from boys like him, landing his first acting role in the film ATL and how his grandma feels about him rapping. All while chomping down on those chicken wings with his handsome self. (He's got the prettiest teeth, although he claims they need some work. And you can see some of this on our website, www.S2Smagazine.com.)

Does T.I. stand by his brash lyrics? Does he want to get married? How did the rumors start about him and Hoopz (the young lady who won Flava Flav's favor on VH1's "Flavor of Love")? He was eating and drinking Pepsi when we started (which explains his early, short answers). By the time we finished, he was like, where's the beer?!

Jamie: You know the Xscape girls were my babies. You know Tiny's my baby.
T.I.: Yeah, I know all about it.

Jamie: I love the way she talks.
T.I.: Oh yeah? I like her, too.

Jamie: I know you do. You're something else. They said you all had broken up but y'all never did break up?
T.I.: It's real complicated.

Jamie: But are you happy?
T.I.: I'm getting there.

Jamie: The record is doing like, crazy, right? King.
T.I.: It's decent.

Jamie: Just decent!?
T.I.: You know [laughs].

Jamie: Okay, how are the shows going now? I know you sold out tonight.
T.I.: Yeah, I mean, we've been selling out every night ever since we came back.

Jamie: You went to Japan, right?
T.I.: Actually, I was supposed to go to Japan but matters beyond my control prevented me from being able to make it, so maybe later.

Jamie: How's Philant's mom doing?
T.I.: She's good.

Jamie: And how are you doing? Everybody just really saw how compassionate you were, losing your baby.
T.I.: My baby? [Laughs] He was a big baby!

Jamie: I mean?that was your boy. You've been knowing him how long?
T.I.: All my life. Yep.
Jamie: And what made you like him?
T.I.: I didn't have no choice [laughs] 'cause we were just together, you know, from the beginning.

Jamie: So you were there and you held him in your arms and everything [after he was shot], did we ever find out what happened or why they did that?
T.I.: Uh-uh. Don't know anything about it.

Jamie: They were saying that you all were throwing money at them. Do you normally do that [during performances]?
T.I.: I don't have no recollection of an incident like that that ever took place.

Jamie: T.I., do you know how many people told us that? That is the craziest thing!
T.I.: Ain't it? My grandmama used to say a lie don't care who tell it.

Jamie: You and your sayings! You all are so funny with that. Okay, so you think you're going to go to Cincinnati again?
T.I.: Yeah.

Jamie: Now some people say you and your crew have bad attitudes.
T.I.: [laughs]

Jamie: Is that another lie?
T.I.: I don't know. I guess that's very opinionated. I guess, you know, everybody has rights to their own opinion. But I mean, they're the best group of guys that I've ever known, so I really could care less.

Jamie: How did you choose them?
T.I.: We grew up together.

Jamie: Okay, but you know what? You can grow up together and you can bring your homeys with you but sometimes the homeys don't learn, you know what I mean? 'Cause like Hammer had a bunch of people on the road with him and stuff but they didn't learn anything; they were just hanging on the road. But your guys, do they learn?
T.I.: Everybody's got a title and a position and play a part in the movement?in the machine.

Jamie: What kind of boss are you?
T.I.: I'm demanding. I'm demanding because I work very hard and I demand that everybody else around me work just as hard, if not harder.

Jamie: When I was interviewing Usher one time, he was saying people had said he was hard to deal with and he said, "Jamie, look, I work real hard."
T.I.: I demand perfection.

Jamie: That's what he was saying.
T.I.: The closest thing you got to it.

Jamie: So what does that mean in the show? Tell me what you do in the show. Is it just walking back and forth, do you have dancers?
T.I.: Naw, no dancers.

Jamie: So what do they have to do? Everybody has to be there on time? Your food and everything has to be ready, right?
T.I.: I'm really only concerned with my money at that point [laughs]. I'm not going to stop the show because the food's not hot. You know, as long as the cash is there and the check's clear, I'm good."

Source...(S2S)