Since his emergence in 2001, T.I. has been a bit of a mystery, an elusive chameleon of sorts; like an illusionist who has mastered his slight of hand magic so flawlessly that you can’t really tell where he is at any given point in time. Now you see him, now you don’t. One minute you think you understand him, the next you’re totally baffled. Today he’s a street kid skirting the law, tomorrow he’s a creative genius churning out timeless hip hop classics. And although it may seem that way, none of it is smoke and mirrors. Rather it’s a man revealing his many dimensions and indulging his own evolution.

T.I. has made a name for himself simply by being himself. Not with gimmicky, quirky facades, not with hype and hoaxes. He has earned the respect of his fans and his peers because he is a man who reveals himself wholly – warts and all -- and holds it down for the streets even, sometimes, in the face of adversity.

The legend we know as T.I. seems like the stuff tall tales are made of but it’s all true: the good, the bad, the ugly and anyone who thinks they’ve got T.I. pegged had better think again.

On his third album, Urban Legend, T.I. digs deep to uncover his true identity, reminding his fans and his colleagues that, like most of us, he is a complex individual who has far more layers than you can ever see by looking at his boyish face. "First of all I just want people to know that no matter how much you see me, no matter how much you hear about me, if you haven’t really been on a one-one one personal level with me then you don’t really know me. You may know things about me, you may know things I used to do, you may know some things that I put out front but don’t take that and run with it and feel like you can categorize me because I wear my hat a certain way or because I talk with a certain slang or a certain accent or because I wear my pants down low. Just as soon as I can put on a white T-shirt and some Jordans I can put on a tailor made suit. Just as soon as I can wear a Rolex I can change up and put on a Frank Muller King Conquistador. Just as soon as I can ride in a Chevy I can go and get in a Benz. This is not just in music, this is in life. I never wanted to be predictable or pre-determined, for somebody to think of me and automatically say ‘this is him,’ ‘this is his arena,’ ‘this is his lane.’ I can do what I wanna do."

That’s the T.I. that we’ve come to know: outspoken, brash and confident and never moreso than he is on Urban Legend.

On song after song, T.I spits out his innermost thoughts in that charming southern drawl that distinguishes him from his peers. His goal on this cd, he says, was to ‘elevate." "I feel like Trap Muzik was an evolution from I’m Serious and I feel that Urban Legend should be the same from Trap Muzik.. I just wanted to do it bigger and better and more efficiently," he says. "I wanted to give people the same emotions, the same feeling, the same intensity, the same urgency, and the same top quality jammin’ urban music."

T.I said the album’s title has a double meaning: "One, an urban legend, by definition, is a myth; something that may hold no truth to it but you hear it so much that you think it’s the truth – like if you eat pop rocks and drink coca cola your stomach will blow up or the Lochness Monster or me having three years in prison and a lotta other stories that people just conjured up about me. The other meaning for it is based on the fact that I’m seemingly a legend or approaching legendary status in urban areas across the United States."

Urban Legend shows the many dimensions of T.I., taking us beyond the ‘trap,’ behind the beefs and deep inside the corridors of his heart and mind. "It’s somewhat contrary and conflicting at times," T.I. says of the cd, "because just like I could go and make a record like ‘You Don’t Know Me’ or ‘ASAP’ or ‘Easy to Scare’ I can go and make a ‘Praying for Help’ and ‘Motivation’ and other things….I got a lotta different dimensions. ‘T.I. vs T.I.P’ on Trap Muzik was a prime example."

From the self-explanatory DJ Toomp-produced "U Don’t Know Me" to the urgent "ASAP" to the self-affirming "I’m the King," T.I. sets the record straight for wanna-be contenders to his southern hip hop kingdom. "’ASAP’ is basically saying if anybody contests my rulership or tries to deny me of my just due then I’m gonna address it…. Basically what this song is saying is I’m a man of respect. I give it and I demand it and if you cross my line, I’m gon’ deal with you, I’m gon’ have to come see about ya ASAP. I will spare no expense on your ass."

On "I’m the King," T.I. revisits his familiar and often controversial ‘King of the South’ proclamation. "People keep on bringing it up so I’m gon’ keep on addressing it. The more people deny it and the more people try and run away from it the more I’m gon’ prove it….That’s my belief. That’s how I feel. That’s me saying those are my intentions, those are my goals. That’s the bar that I set for myself and I’m not gonna let anybody out there – no journalist, no rapper, no producer, no fan, nobody’s gon’ tell me that I can’t reach my goal. Nobody." Not even a fellow southern rapper whose attempt to publicly defame T.I. and his crown earned him a verbal beat down in "I Ain’t Easy To Scare." "I just felt like it was necessary for the fact that I felt like somebody was taking advantage of a low point in my life because they felt that I wouldn’t be able to respond. While I was away somebody was taking advantage of my absence, saying I wasn’t the king of the south. You’re not gon’ tell me what I am and what I ain’t. It’s not your place. Don’t even speak on it."

Though T.I. takes clear aim at his hip hop adversaries on Urban Legend, he vows that he won’t "waste his music" on other rappers again. "I’m done rapping about rappers. I’m done getting into it with rappers as far as music is concerned. If I feel disrespected by another rapper then I’ll just wait ‘til I see him and we’ll handle it then but I’m done wasting my music on ‘em. I just don’t feel that it’s worthy."

And he addresses another type of girl on the Pharrell Williams-track "She A Freak Though." "That’s a record that’s basically talking about a guy who really likes a girl but her reputation precedes her. Everybody who knows her and dealt with her considers her a freak. The chorus is ‘She’s got angel eyes and a baby face, but she a freak though/ I want my mama and daddy to meet her, maybe have my baby but she a freak though.’ And in that record I’m like, ‘She a freak but that might be one of the things I like about her.’ There are other things that other people may not have gotten a chance to see so instead of focusing on what you don’t like about her, I’m gon’ focus on what I do like about her."

On "Why Be Mad At Me," T.I. makes reference to the legal problems that landed him in jail and the somewhat overzealous efforts by police officers determined to make him pay his debt to society. "I’m basically speaking to the police and detectives who thought that just because they heard a song like ‘Dope Boyz in the Trap’ or ‘Never Scared’ or just songs that maybe catered to the ghetto or the ‘hood or the lifestyle that I used to live before I got a record deal, they figured that I was still like that, that that was the lifestyle that I still lived. So I’m tellin’ them don’t be mad at me because I’m still the one who’s gonna rep for the ‘hood. Don’t be mad at me just because I got money and I can do what you wanna do and you work hard and do what your boss tells you to do yet you’re making a fraction of what I’m making. Don’t be mad at me because I’m young and living the way you wanna live when you retire. You can’t make me what you want me to be…. I’m far from a petty thief, a thug, a street hustler. I was once that but I’ve grown and evolved from that and I feel like it’s disrespectful and an insult to still try to put me in that category, put me in that box."

More emotional still is the poignant "Praying for Help." "I feel like I’ve taken a lotta flak and carried a lotta loads that a lot of other rappers were scared to take and a lotta other rappers didn’t wanna get too involved in," says T.I. "When it got hot in the kitchen they got out. When it got hot in the kitchen I started cooking and I did that for the streets because that’s where I came from and that’s what I hold valuable. Right or wrong, good or bad, it’s made me what I am today. It plays a great part in the inspiration in my songs, my business sense, my swagger as a whole, my determination, my self-esteem, my confidence and my willingness to say this is how I feel and if you don’t like it I don’t care. There was a time when I was hard headed so I was just praying for help. Praying that somebody else would come and help me carry the load because right now I’m the only person that’s really bucking for the ‘hood like that so I’m gon’ take all the flak. I’m gon’ get all the bumps and bruises but as I thought about it and continued to pray, it came to me that I don’t really need no help. If God’s with me I can do it by myself. I been doing it by myself. I just gotta learn from my mistakes, correct my flaws. I can do it myself. If nobody else ever stands up for the ‘hood, if nobody else cares about the kids, cool. I do and I’m gon’ remain present."