Rapper T.I. was the guest of honor in Jackson, Mississippi on Wednesday, September 24 as he was presented with the key to the city.
The star was feted during a special ceremony at City Hall, which was hosted by Mayor Tony Yarber, who praised the star for using his many problems with the law to encourage youths to make the right choices. T.I. said he could change himself, and that he doesn’t need credit.
“I can’t really change everyone’s opinion of me but I can change me. Everybody don’t catch on and everybody don’t acknowledge change at the same time, but the good part is, I ain’t doing it for them (sic). I don’t need credit. Just knowing that I can use my experiences, my past, good and bad, to help assist the future: children, teenagers, young adults and the grown people who may have gone through the same things. They can have an example showing that, ‘Hey, just because I fell down in something, doesn’t mean I got to stay down in it’. When it’s all said and done, I’ve seen people rise from the wreckage.”
During his time in Jackson, he stopped by local schools to talk to students about his experience and his troubled past, as he spent time behind bars for possession of weapons and drugs.
His Mississippi honor was an early birthday present for the rapper/actor, as he turned 34 on Thursday.
