Rapper T.I.: Troublemaker to troubleshooter?
It's been hard to avoid the music of rapper T.I. over the last year,
with his No. 1 hits "Whatever You Like" and "Live Your Life" blaring
from nightclubs, iPod headphones and car stereos everywhere.
But starting Tuesday night on MTV, the hip-hop star will try out a new role as a sort of celebrity guardian angel who tries to scare kids straight.
In the reality series "T.I.'s Road to Redemption," young people who'd usually be described as "at-risk" -- troubled backgrounds, limited prospects, bad attitude -- get a surprise visit from the rapper, who favors a carrot-and-stick approach to behavior modification.
In the premiere, an Atlanta street hustler with vague aspirations of becoming an actor gets a crash course in "Romeo and Juliet." But to drive home the point, T.I. also guides him to the basement of a local funeral home, where an attendant has laid out the corpse of another young hood whose luck ran in the opposite direction.
Read the full story here.
-- Scott Collins
(Photo courtesy Jason O'Dell / MTV)
