T.I. Performs Farewell Concert Before Heading to Prison

T.I. said a temporary goodbye to friends and family at a farewell concert this weekend. Tip, who's expected to report to prison today, performed at his native Atlanta's Phillips Arena to a sellout crowd of 16,000, CNN reports. "T.I.'s Final Goodbye Bash," as the concert was dubbed, featured a set list stocked with many of the rapper's biggest hits, including "Whatever You Like" and "Swagga Like Us." The performance also included appearances by Soulja Boy and Tip's five children, who came onstage with their mother. "I'm doing the best I can to get out there, man, and put something positive on these young kids, man," T.I. said. "I try my best. I need y'all help, though."

As part of his plea bargain, T.I., born Clifford Harris, has spent the last year visiting schools and youth groups warning about the dangers of violence. T.I. was sentenced to a 366-day prison sentence stemming from an October 2007 incident when the rapper had his bodyguard purchase $12,000 worth of weapons. Due to a prior conviction on felony drug charges in 1998, Tip was not permitted to own firearms.

Under the plea bargain, T.I. was also held under house arrest and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine. During that time, T.I. recorded his latest LP, Paper Trail. The rapper is scheduled to begin his 366-day jail term today, May 26th, but the rapper's time behind bars will reportedly be reduced to credit the days T.I. spent under house arrest. Last week, Rock Daily reported that T.I.'s lawyers filed an appeal to have the rapper's prison term moved from the Forrest City Federal Correctional Complex in Arkansas to a minimum security facility closer to Atlanta.

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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.”

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