T.I. (Clifford Joseph Harris Jr.) was born on September 25, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, record and executive producer as well as the Co-CEO of Grand Hustle Records.

His debut album I'm Serious was released on October 9, 2001 through Arista Records, which spawned the single of the same title which featured reggae vocalist Beenie Man.

His debut album included Pharrell Williams of The Neptunes (who named him the Jay-Z of the south), Jazze Pha, and Youngbloodz. Production was by The Neptunes, DJ Toomp, and The Grand Hustle Team. However, the album did not sell very well, and he was dropped from the label. The album sold 268,000 copies.

T.I. released the first single "I'm Serious" with Beenie Man. The single had little airplay and failed to meet the charts. The label would not release another single or video for the album, so T.I. created a video for "Dope Boyz", which had not a video nor single released, but can be seen on YouTube.

He released several mixtapes with the assistance of DJ Drama, which created an underground buzz. He resurfaced in the summer of 2003 on Bonecrusher's song "Neva Scared". He parlayed this attention towards the release of his second album, Trap Muzik.