T.I. is coming clean about his drug addiction.

The recently-freed rapper told Billboard.com that Eminem helped him with his own drug addiction, which started off with medication for oral surgery.

“I haven’t had a chance to speak to Em since I’ve been home,” Tip said. “I heard that while I was down, he was trying to get in contact with me, but I don’t know if the dots just didn’t connect. [Eminem] overcoming his own adversities, winning the battle against his own demons and continuing to break the mold and re-set the standard of what it means to be the most successful hip-hop artist in the game … I salute that to no end.”

In a move that will likely keep federal authorities off his back, T.I. is keeping things simple for his welcome home festivities. Rather than throw the usual nightclub blowout bash fit for a king, Tip is doing brunch with a few hundred or so friends.

According to TMZ, music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is planning a lavish welcome home brunch for his recently-released pal. The affair will take place at a private location in Atlanta. The 150 expected guests will be treated to bottles of Ciroc, $20,000 worth of food, $8,000 worth of desserts, and custom-made clothes from Tip’s clothing line AKOO.

The extravagant brunch will go down on Sunday, October 2, two days after T.I. is set free from an Atlanta halfway house.

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To say that this album was a long time coming would be an understatement. Glasses Malone’s debut album, Beach Cruiser, was originally scheduled to come out in 2006; however numerous setbacks and label changes kept the album from seeing the day of light; until now. Finding a home at Suburban Noize Records, Malone has finally released the album to masses, who are anxious to see how it would turn out. So, was it worth the wait? Well, that’s going to depend what you’re looking for.

Grammy Award-winning rapper T.I. is once again out of federal prison and in a halfway house, his attorney said on Friday.

The Atlanta entertainer, whose real name is Clifford Harris, was released August 31 from a federal prison in Arkansas where he was serving an 11-month sentence on weapons possession and drug charges.

T.I. was assigned to a halfway house in Atlanta for the last month of his sentence. But shortly after leaving Arkansas, the rapper was returned to a federal prison in Atlanta because officials had an “issue” with his ride on a luxury bus from Arkansas to Atlanta, attorney Steve Sadow said.

Prison officials believed T.I. was conducting business on the bus, Sadow told Reuters on Friday.

“But we provided them with information that he wasn’t actually conducting business on the bus,” the attorney said.

On Thursday, T.I. was transferred from prison to the Atlanta halfway house, Sadow said. The entertainer is scheduled to be released September 29.

He was sentenced in October 2010 to 11 months in prison for violating the terms of his probation on federal gun charges after he was arrested on suspicion of possessing the drug ecstasy.


It was his second stint behind bars in three years.

T.I.’s career began as a rapper in 2001, but he then branched out into other areas of the music and film industry, finding success both as a producer and actor.

Cable channel VH1 said last month that it had teamed up with the 30-year-old “Got Your Back” singer for a 10-episode series that will follow his readjustment to life outside prison and the making of a new album. The series is due to premiere on December 5.

Will Smith is preparing for a musical comeback, according to a new report.

Producer La Mar “Mars” Edwards confirmed he is working with “Big Willie” on a new record.

“We’re working on Will Smith, bringing him back,” the producer, who has worked with the Game and T.I. told hip hop magazine XXL. “That’s actually him on the other line right now. Snoop’s daughter, we just put out her first single. We’re doing the whole album. Mario wants me to do a mixtape with him, we’re working on that. I’m working on Ashanti. We’re just working on as much as possible.”

No further tidbits about Will’s return to the rap world were dropped.

Will’s last album, his fifth artist LP, “Lost and Found,” was released in 2005. Will’s big hits over the years included “Getting’ Jiggy Wit It,” “Miami” and “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”

The star is currently working on the next “Men In Black III,” which is due for release in 2012.

Maybe you’ve only heard of Lil Boosie in passing, or perhaps you’ve never heard of him at all. His songs have never earned regular local radio play, and his influence west of the Rockies is usually relegated to street rap diehards and those who read their RSS feed intravenously.

But in the South, his influence is omnipresent, crossing racial and class divides. He’s a cult figure with a mass following, a high-top faded and ferocious performer perennially enduring some sort of struggle (whether it’s women, diabetes or triumphing over illegal downloading to buy a candy-painted car).

From his first days as a member of C-Loc’s Concentration Camp clique to being promoted as the next Trill star by Pimp C, to his classic mixtapes, to a trio of solo albums released on Asylum Records, Boosie has earned a reputation as one of the rawest rappers in the South, a region known for unfiltered flamboyant personas.

Alas, it’s also a region known for the frequency with which its most popular artists are incarcerated. Over the last few years, T.I., Gucci Mane, Lil Wayne, Mystikal and Lil Boosie have been incarcerated for various indiscretions. Yet Boosie’s charges trump them all.

While it’s dificult to parse his current legal woes, at the moment he is facing charges ranging from ordering the murder of rivals (a charge that could get him the death penalty) to various conspiracy charges to distribute and smuggle narcotics into a federal penitiary. And on Monday, he was indicted on charges of trying to smuggle codeine into a second state prison. The indictment comes from a May 25 charge that Boosie and two local men had been attempting to smuggle in the banned substance. If convicted, it could lead to two to four years being tacked onto Boosie’s prison time.

Ignoring speculation about his guilt or innocence, it’s sad to watch one of the most singular voices of his generation get shut down. With his sinister amphibian croak, Boosie rapped about many of the same tropes as his peers, but he always conveyed greater anguish, sincerity and unfiltered passion. He created music to triumph over adversity, which resonated with anyone going through any sort of woe. He also stole the show on “Wipe Me Down,” which remains one of the funnest songs of all time.

Recently, a bootleg mixtape compilation of his most recent work has cropped up. Downloading it is recommended. Of local interest is “California,” a paean to the streets of L.A. and its most famous cash crop.