T.I. will head back to prison without his AXE deal

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If rapper T.I. wants to experience the AXE effect while he’s in prison, he’ll have to buy his own, or have it smuggled in -- the men’s grooming brand best known for its body spray has finally cut him loose as its spokesman.

Unlike the brands that dropped Tiger Woods like a hot rock when he got into trouble, AXE stuck with T.I. (real name Clifford Harris Jr.) after he was arrested Sept. 1 in L.A. on suspicion of drug possession while on probation after doing time on federal weapons charges. But the company said in a statement Thursday that the relationship is over, according to multiple sources, and the rapper has been scrubbed from the hunky-smelling website.

T.I. did an interview Monday on an Atlanta radio station alongside Joshua Starks, the 24-year-old man he’d helped talk out of jumping off a high-rise last Thursday. ‘All of the things we go through in life, they just prepare us for the next battle,’ T.I. said, observing that Starks had been able to make it through his crisis with ‘minimal injury, maximum lesson learned.’

AXE’s ‘One Night Only’ concert series was kicked off by T.I. in August -- it was, in fact, his first performance after getting out of prison. Coming up, fans can look forward to one night only with Weezer.

(Is body spray even legal in prison? We’re so naive.)

-- Christie D’Zurilla

Related dispatches from the Ministry of Gossip:

T.I. sentenced to 11 months in prison for probation violations

Rapper T.I. and wife Tiny arrested on drug-possession charges in West Hollywood