Rapper T.I. was arrested outside his own gated Atlanta community early this morning on disorderly conduct and public drunkenness charges. The AP reports that T.I., real name Clifford Harris, had apparently lost his house keys, and upon arriving at his neighborhood at around 4:30 AM this morning, was still refused entry to the community by a security guard. On the surface, the incident sounds like a simple misunderstanding gone awry, but the racial components are hard to ignore.
The arrest harkens to the time that Dr. Dre was arrested outside of his own Malibu, CA mansion in July of 2016. T.I. has already been socially active through his music and recent interviews, but this arrest, if it turns out to have gone down as reported, should fuel his fire and advocacy even more. T.I. is currently on Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ 38-member transition team, which exemplifies his desire for political change. It seems hard to believe that a rapper of T.I.’s stature would go unnoticed in his own neighborhood, but perhaps the guard’s adherence to a policy spurred the conflict.
There have been no further reports on whether T.I. has been bailed out, but we’ll update this post with any additional news.
