T.I. has made an interesting observation about today’s Hip Hop landscape acknowledging both the amount of talent and how overcrowded the space has become.

Tip shared his observation during an appearance on Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast, The Big Podcast with Shaq, which dropped on Wednesday (February 28).

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“This generation reminds me of every other generation,” he began. “You got some people who are exceptionally dope, and some people who are just alright. You know what I mean?”

He continued: “But it’s a lot more of it to choose from now. I feel that, actually, what they’ve done with music is equivalent to if they were to open up the doors of the arena and say, ‘anybody think you can play basketball? Come on out the stands out here to the floor. Here go you a jersey, man. Get in the game.'”

Elsewhere in the same interview, T.I. revealed that while he appreciated his colleagues — like Nelly and Usher — who were part-owners of basketball teams, he couldn’t see himself investing in a team himself. 

“So many of my contemporaries — like Nelly, you know, he got a piece of Charlotte — and Usher’s got a piece of Cleveland,” he began around the 29-minute mark. “You know, people be asking me, ‘would I ever do it?’ And I don’t think I would, you know? Because I just can’t see me taking so much of my money, investing it in something, and I can’t do what the fuck I wanna do.”

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He continued: “I just can’t imagine that. I’m gonna put my money into something where I can dictate, and I can determine, the way it’s gonna go.”

He also revealed that he and DMX were planning to collaborate before the legendary rapper’s untimely death.

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“X came to my house like two weeks before he died. We were planning to work together,” he said. “He came to the studio and I was recording something else. I think by the time I had finished he had to run to another engagement.”

The Grand Hustle general continued: “And then one time he said he wanted to go to the studio but I was at the house with the kids and I couldn’t get out, so he said, ‘I’ma just pull up on you, man.’”

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“He came by and we just sat up all night ’til four, five in the morning, talking loud in the kitchen. I was having margaritas, I think he might have had a beer. Smoking and chilling, just talking like we known each other forever. That was the first time we had ever really [met].”

He added: “We were talking about kids and he left town that day and I left town, I was taking my kids to Orlando. And we was on the phone planning to meet back up and work again. I think maybe two, three days later, he had passed.”