Rapper T.I. Arrested Before Awards Show
By ERRIN HAINES – 2 hours ago
ATLANTA (AP) — Grammy-winning rapper T.I. was arrested Saturday — just hours before he was to take the stage at the BET Hip-Hop Awards — after federal officials said he had paid his bodyguard to buy machine guns and silencers for him.
The arrest resulted from an investigation that began this month when a federal firearms licensee contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about a man inquiring about buying a machine gun without registering the weapon as required by law, according to a criminal complaint filed Saturday 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 Clifford Harris, T.I.’s given name, the complaint said. According to the bodyguard, he had bought about nine firearms for T.I., and the rapper had given him cash to buy guns four different times, it said.
Harris brokered the deals through the bodyguard because he 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 had arranged to pick up the weapons just hours before he was to take the stage at the Hip-Hop Awards, being taped blocks away, according to the complaint.
Sydney Margetson, a spokesman for T.I.’s label, Atlantic Records, declined to comment Saturday.
As the Hip-Hop Awards were being taped in Atlanta on Saturday night, federal authorities were searching T.I.’s home in East Point, about 15 miles southwest of the city.
Half a dozen agents were still searching well into the night, removing boxes and envelopes from the large, red brick house with white columns and ornate glass windows, removing boxes and envelopes.
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., though he was at the center where the show was to be taped.
Saturday was supposed to be a day of revelry for T.I., the co-chief executive of Grand Hustle Records. The self-proclaimed “King of the South” won three awards at last year’s inaugural BET Hip-Hop Awards and received nine nominations this year, including CD of the Year, Lyricist of the Year and MVP of the Year.
The rapper’s sixth album, “T.I. vs. T.I.P.,” was released July 3 and debuted at No. 1.
In May 2006, T.I.’s best friend, Philant Johnson, was killed and three others were injured in a gun shootout after a post-performance party in Cincinnati. The killer remains at large, and T.I. was briefly locked up a few days after the funeral on suspicion of failing to perform community service stemming from a 2003 arrest.
T.I. grew up in Atlanta and was selling crack by the time he was a teenager. After years of hustling to launch his rap career, recording demos and flying back and forth to New York shopping for a record deal, his first taste of success came with his 2003 album, “Trap Muzik.”
But the next year, warrants were issued for his arrest on probation violations for a drug conviction, and he was sentenced to three years behind bars. It wasn’t clear Saturday how much of the sentence he actually served.
T.I. hit the big screen in his debut movie, “ATL,” in March 2006. He has a role opposite Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in “American Gangster,” set for release Nov. 2.
T.I. also appeared in a commercial for Chevrolet in which he rapped and raced alongside NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. He has also won two Grammy Awards.
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