T.I. and Mary J. Blige Team Up For Reissue's "Don't Forget"

T.I. and Mary J. Blige's collaboration "Don't Forget" — confirmed as the first single from Tip's upcoming Paper Trail reissue — leaked this week, MTV reports. The reissue of T.I.'s 2008 album is expected out this summer and features five new tracks. With T.I. heading to prison to serve a one-year sentence for gun charges, the song will likely serve as the rapper's goodbye, coming on the heels of his reflective "Dead and Gone" duet with Justin Timberlake. "Don't forget to remember me," Blige sings on the chorus. "Please keep me in your heart, if we ever have to part." According to TMZ, T.I. has 11 days until he must report to a low-security prison in Forrest City, Arkansas.

According to MTV, Kanye West's original feature on Paper Trail's "On Top of the World" — a verse that was ultimately excised from the record — might be resurrected for the reissue. Other potential Paper Trail tracks include "Like I Do" featuring The-Dream and "My Dear" with Ciara. Plus, Tip was rumored to have been working in the studio with Dr. Dre during Grammy weekend, so perhaps something will come out of those sessions. As for "Don't Forget," T.I. and Blige reportedly plan to shoot a video for the single at an undisclosed location.

Related Stories:

• T.I. Plots "Paper Trail" Re-Release With Bonus Tracks
• T.I. Sentenced To One Year and a Day In Prison, Could Serve Less
• T.I. Preps For Life Behind Bars With "Dead And Gone" Video

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter