Rapper T.I. was arrested yesterday (Oct. 13), just hours before he was to perform at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta, in a parking lot where federal officials said he planned to pick up machine guns and silencers his bodyguard bought for him.
T.I., born Clifford Harris, is charged with possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers, as well as possession of firearms by a convicted felon. Harris was in federal custody, said U.S. attorney's office spokesman Patrick Crosby, who would not disclose his location.
The arrest resulted from an investigation that began this month. A federal firearms dealer told the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that a man was inquiring about buying a machine gun without registering the weapon as required, according to a criminal complaint filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
After trying to buy several machine guns from an undercover ATF agent, the unnamed person began cooperating with the government and said he was buying the machine guns and silencers for Harris, the complaint said. The bodyguard said that he had bought about nine firearms for Harris, and that the rapper had given him cash to buy guns four times, the complaint said.
Harris brokered the deals through the bodyguard because the rapper is a convicted felon, the complaint alleged. It is against federal law for a convicted felon to have another person get firearms on their behalf.
The 27-year-old rapper arranged to meet with the bodyguard yesterday to exchange cash for weapons, the complaint said. After his arrest in the shopping center parking lot not far from the awards show, agents found three firearms in the vehicle he was driving, including a loaded firearm between the driver's seat and center console, according to the complaint.
As the awards were being taped, federal authorities were still searching T.I.'s home in East Point, about 15 miles southwest of Atlanta. Agents found six guns in a closet, including three allegedly bought by the bodyguard for the rapper last month, according to the complaint. Five were loaded, agents said.
T.I. had been expected to perform at the BET show, which is to be broadcast Wednesday, and was nominated in nine categories. Instead, the rapper was noticeably absent from red carpet festivities before the show began at 6 p.m.
Well, Well, Well! For those who listened this morning to the Ed Lover Show, you heard us totally trash the show! I admit I made one of the biggest mistakes, I didn't watch it until tonight! So, I stand corrected! The Missy Elliot tribute was DOPE, however I think it was foul for not having Lil Mo sing "Hot Boyz!" I don't what was behind that one! The Wildstyle tribute PURE UNCUT DOPE! If you just started in hip hop in the last 10 years??YOU should know who Busy Bee, Grandmaster Caz & Grand Wizard Theodore are! Technology allows YOU to google people these days, try it! The New Jack Swing tribute was half right, Doug E Fresh is always incredible when he touches any stage! T-Pain was very painful to listen to, he sounded like pure garbage trying to sing Keith Sweat "I Want Her!" It wasn't complete without Guy (Aaron & Damian Hall), Today, Redhead Kingpin, Al B Sure & Wreckx N Effect! I'm pretty sure none of these guys were too busy to show up and perform! Whodini tribute, who in the F*@# thought it was a good idea to put Nick Cannon up there?? Nelly and Jermaine Dupri did good and it was great to see all 3 guys and Doctor Ice on stage together! Did you even know Jermaine Dupri used to dance for Whodini?? MESSAGE!!!!!!!!!!! The Snoop tribute was right, I didn't have any issues with that one and the grand finale.........A Tribe Called Quest!!!! Wow! Common, Lupe Fiasco (he got a little too excited and forgot lyrics) and BUSTA RHYMES! In the words of the great poet Lil Jon........YEAHH!!!!!!! Then the Tribe took the stage! I damned near dropped a couple tears, I was soooooo excited to see them allllll on stage! If you missed it, you VH-1 will show it over and over and over again this week. If you saw it? What did YOU think????
Last night after checking out one of the most incredible hip hop concerts of the year! The Roots w/MC Lyte & Big Daddy Kane! Wow!! I returned home about 4am, I pulled up and noticed all the of the downstairs lights were on and thought to myself "This is very odd??" I opened the door, entered and I could smell the scent of "heat" not food cooking just "heat", so I walked into the kitchen and on the stove was a pot that once had water still on over the fire. After I saw it wasn't any immediate danger, I stormed upstairs and yelled of course "Keith get your @*# up!" He jumped up, as I walked downstairs behind him giving him an earfull all the way to the kitchen. I showed him the stove, he said "Oh My God!" He said went upstair to wait on the water to boil and fell asleep (as he turned off the stove holding the pot). I ran down a few scenarios about what could have happened! What if he had the fire up higher?? He & my lady would've been caught in a fire while SLEEPING! What if I had come home and went straight to bed?? We all would've been trapped and killed!!!!! I banned him from ever using the stove until he's grown!! This is not the first time! We had an electric stove at the other place and he made the same mistakes (except being sleep). I went our bedroom and my lady asked me what was all the yelling about, I told her and she said she had a dream about a "FIRE" earlier that day! She mention something about the smoke detector's, so I decided to check them out. Out of 5 of them only 2 were working!! The 1 in our bedroom didn't have a battery, 1 in the kids room had a dead battery, 1 in Keith's room worked, 1 in the hallway upstairs worked AND the 1 by the kitchen had a low battery! So you know I couldn't shut my eyes last night/this morning! I share this story with you simply to say, if you haven't checked your smoke detectors in while? DO IT TODAY!!!!!!!!!! Thank GOD we're still ALIVE!!!!
> BILL COSBY VS JESSE JACKSON A MUST READ > Very profound... > I had never seen the Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson cry in public. And > he's seldom upstaged. Until, Bill Cosby came to town. > Last month Jackson invited Cosby to the annual Rainbow/PUSH > conference for a conversation about controversial remarks the entertainer > offered May 17 at an NAACP dinner in Washington, DC. > That's when America's Jell-O Man shook things up by arguing that > African Americans were betraying the legacy of civil rights victories. > "The lower economic people," he said, "are not holding up their end in > this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for > their kids. $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for "Hooked on Phonics!" > Thursday morning, Cosby showed no signs of repenting as he strode across the stage at the Sheraton Hotel ballroom before a standing-room-only crowd. > Sporting a natty gold sports coat and dark glasses, he proceeded to unload a laundry list of black America's self-imposed ills. > The iconic actor and comedian kidded that he couldn't compete with the > oratory of the Reverend but he preached circles around Jackson in their nearly hour-long conversation, delivering brutally frank one-liners and the toughest of love. > The enemy, he argues, is us: "There is a time, ladies and gentlemen, when we have to turn the mirror around." Cosby acknowledged he wasn't > critiquing all blacks-just "the 50 percent of African Americans in the lower > economic neighborhood who drop out of school," and the alarming > proportions of black men in prison and black teenage mothers. The mostly black crowd seconded him with choruses of "Amen's." > > To critics who pose, it's unproductive to air our dirty laundry in public,he responds, "Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day. > It's cursing on the way home, on the bus, train, in the candy store. They are cursing and grabbing each other and going nowhere. > > And, the book bag is very, very thin because there's nothing in it." > "Don't worry about the white man," he adds. "I could care less about what white people think about me . . . let 'them talk. What are they saying > that is different from what their grandfathers said and did to us? What is > different is what we are doing to ourselves." > For those who say Cosby is just an elitist who's "got his" but doesn't > understand the plight of the black poor, he reminds us that, "We're going to turn that mirror around. It's not just the poor-everybody's guilty." > Cosby and Jackson lamented that in the 50th year of Brown vs. Board of > Education, our failings betray our legacy. Jackson dabbed away tears as he recalled the financial struggles at Fisk University, a historically black college and Jackson's Alma mater. > When Cosby was done, the 1,000 people in the room all jumped to their feet in ovation. Long after Cosby had departed, I could not find a > dissenter in the crowd. But in the hotel corridor I encountered a vintage poster for sale that said volumes. The poster, which advertised the > Million Man March, was "discounted" to $5: Remember the Million Man March? > In 1995, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan exhorted "a million > sober, disciplined, committed, dedicated, inspired black men to meet in Washington on a day of atonement. > In 2006, perhaps all that is left of that call is a $5 poster. We have > shed tears too many times, at too many watershed moments before, while the hopes they inspired have fallen by the wayside. > Not this time! > Cosby's plea to parents: "Before you get to the point where you say, 'I can't do nothing with them' - do something with them." > Like: Teach our children to speak English. There's no such thing as > "talking white". When the teacher calls, show up at the school. > When the idiot box starts spewing profane rap videos, turn it off. > Refrain from cursing around the kids. > Teach our boys that women should be cherished, not raped and demeaned. > Tell them that education is a prize we won with blood and tears, not a > dishonor. > Stop making excuses for the agents and abettors of black-on-black crime. > It costs us nothing to do these things. But if we don't, it will cost us infinitely more tears. > I passed this on... will you?
