The man behind one of Tip’s first hit records “Rubber Band Man” spoke to Rap Fix Live about the incarcerated scarface…
“T.I.’s probably one of the strongest dudes that I ever met. Since the first day I met him, he was the shortest dude in the room but had his chest poked out the furthest [and] always kept his head up,” he said. Banner noted Tip’s resilience both as an artist and a businessman, one who engineered a fruitful deal with Atlantic after his debut outing with Arista went south.
“Even when his first situation went down with the label, he totally pulled [himself] off the label and started back over again,” he remarked. “He’s been one person who’s been up against adversity all of his life…
…”Everybody expects entertainers to raise [their] family. One thing that he said that really struck me is that we’re still men; there’s still certain repercussions as black men in America with everybody’s eyes being on you. From the streets to business, we’re still men, we’re not gods. We’re not perfect,” Banner continued. “The thing that America has done, every mistake that a young black man makes — and not that he couldn’t have made better decisions — but in life, period, everybody that’s behind these cameras that’s on the Internet or whatever, look at the mistakes you make every day in life. If you made one or two mistakes, and then every time you make one or two mistakes, everybody is on you, that’s a lot of pressure as a person.”
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