T.I. Puts $50,000 Bounty on Cornell Student’s Head
When Cornell booked Georgia rapper T.I. to play its annual Slope Day, it must have known his reputation. Possession charges, gun fights, parole violations -- Clifford Joseph Harris Jr.'s record is no secret. (We do admire his work with the Make-a-Wish Foundation.) But even they must have been surprised when, mid-song, the emcee stopped the music and went on a two-minute diatribe against a kid who'd apparently thrown a water bottle at him.
Instead of politely asking the student to refrain from throwing projectiles, T.I. took the next logical step and put $50,000 on his head. At a club or arena, this would be notable but uninteresting. At Cornell, it's surreal.
The video below is spotty, so we've included an abridged transcript. You may notice the DJ gets a little carried away with the gunshot sound effects:
Don't motherfucking play with me, homeboy ... You don't throw nothing at me, I won't throw nothing at you, you dig that? [gunshot sounds] ... I respect your school doing your thang [Ed. note: Can this blurb please be engraved into stone on Ho Plaza?], but I'm a real street nigga, I don't play that shit, homes. ... Anybody else throws something up on this stage, I got 50,000 on his head, I ain't bullshitting. [gunshots] [guns cocking] [more guns shooting / cocking] ... That's the way it goes ... Don't motherfucking play with me man [gun cocks] ... Y'all see what it going have to be , right? ... [cocks] Hey, we need to continue this show. Throw something up here and you're getting thrown out, you're going to jail tonight. ... Let's do this [cocks] ... I need some head busters out there in the crowd. ... I need some plainclothes out there. ... If you see someone throw something, you know them out, come on and get your money.
It's hard to know where to start. First off, is it just us, or is T.I. really telling Cornell to snitch on its own? For shame. Plus, all that gun-cocking gets a little excessive. Everyone knows you can only cock a gun once in between rounds. It also makes you wonder how many "head busters" actually attend Cornell, and whether T.I. is aware of the likely scarcity.
P.S. We're actually not positive it's the original bottle-thrower that T.I. puts the bounty on -- it could be a hypothetical reward for violence against any subsequent hurlers. Close textual analysis appreciated.
UPDATE 5:30 p.m.: Nooooo! T.I. has pulled one over on us for the last time!
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May 8th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
This happened at Bentley College two weeks ago, not at Cornell. Sorry.
May 8th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
my bad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrM-2VJqnM8
deja vu
May 8th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Sounds staged to me, especially if they had gunshots playing in the background
May 8th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Ummm…that was definitely Cornell. See West Campus in the background? And yes, there was throwing of water bottles.
Does anyone else find the excessive gunshots and cocking a little – oh, I don’t know, WRONG? after what happened at Virginia Tech?
May 8th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
this is def cornell dumbass
May 8th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
no, i was at the show and it happened. the whole thing came off as slightly ridiculous. apparently, ti was supposed to perform one more song, but someone throw another what bottle at him and he peaced
May 8th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
100% staged. he has done this multiple times, running through the same dialogue.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Although TI was lame, it was funny to hear the Woo Girls Woooo!ing at the sound of a gun cocking and the call for “beaters”. They all so gansta.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Notice that in Oops’ bentley clip there’s a thrown water bottle that misses him, and then they have to try again. Smooth and straight thuggin.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
The whole gun click noise throughout the set was really annoying and sooooo innapropriate.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
The gun click noise was not limited to this little incident. He kept doing it over, and over, and over again throughout the entire set. It was awful.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Same exact thing happened at Yale’s Spring Fling last week — he was tossing a football back and forth with the football guys (who had been kind enough to shove their way to the front row), then some kid threw a water bottle at him. He started whining (of course, to the sound of gun cocks/shots), and left the stage with (according to rumor) several songs to go in his set. All around, he was a major disappointment.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Same exact thing happened at Yale’s Spring Fling last week — he was tossing a football back and forth with the football guys (who had been kind enough to shove their way to the front row), then some kid threw a water bottle at him. He started whining (of course, to the sound of gun cocks/shots), and left the stage with (according to rumor) several songs to go in his set. All around, he was a major disappointment.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Ti sucks dick
May 8th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
I really hope it was staged. I think this entire story sounds a lot worse being taken seriously.
Gavin
http://www.universitynotes.net
May 8th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
all this mainstream rap bullshit is way out of hand with the glorification of drugs and gunplay and all that stupid shit. anyone see that stop snitchin special CBS did with cam’ron? he said it’s all for business, they’re not thug or gangsta cuz they wanna be, they do it for the money. 50 claims to be so hood and ghetto and he lives in farmington, connecticut. its all bullshit.
May 8th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
that was definitely cornell … note the yellow drink wristbands and west campus background towers. The whole thing was, however, scripted.
May 8th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Being a “street n—-a”, I don’t appreciate you assuming that I couldn’t get into Cornell. Thank God for after school educational programs in Flatbush. On the other hand TI and his fake ass is more of a Columbia type if you ask me. Word.
May 8th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Several water bottles were thrown. I threw one, after he was already over the top. Somebody came up to me, though, a few minutes after I threw the waterbottle and threatened to beat me up if I threw another. Its a shame that he got so upset, though.
May 8th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Slope Day band selection was an enormous failure this year, the best band was the first, Catch 22, and it went downhill, no pun intended, from there. And putting a hit on an audience member is lame, pretending to do it over and over again is even lamer.
May 8th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
so TI goes around to preppy northeast schools staging hood\gangsta outbursts? he’s pathetic. vibe should be all over this.
May 8th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Columbia type? Let’s see the rap groups I saw when I was living in campus were………Outkast, and the roots. You are telling me TI or whomever compares? Stay in Ithaca.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:38 am
The crowd should have showered the stage with water bottles so he could stomp off.
What a loser. This whole “gangsta” thing is so old and tired and ridiculous. Why people buy into this garbage is beyond me.
May 9th, 2007 at 10:26 am
it’s all a scam on T.I.’s part…he plants someone in the crowd to throw a water bottle, allowing him to cut short his performance and still get paid in full due to a clause in the contracts he signs. i’m not even kidding, the guy’s a crook.
May 9th, 2007 at 10:31 am
To inform all of the above, the initial water bottle was thrown by a freshman who was getting a little too fratty. That dialogue neglects the part when T.I. is talking shit to the brothers of ___
May 9th, 2007 at 10:31 am
To inform all of the above, the initial water bottle was thrown by a freshman who was getting a little too fratty. That dialogue neglects the part when T.I. is talking shit to the brothers of ___
May 9th, 2007 at 10:34 am
being only a few week after the virginia tech shootings, and cornell being a school with kids from everywhere (including virginia)… i thought it was very insensitive to play gun shot noises on a college campus. it just crossed the line. many people were offended
May 9th, 2007 at 11:51 am
What’s up at my old alma mater? Bands on Slope Day always suck; but, this is a new low.
Kudos to TI for having developed a culture of bottle-throwing (planted or not) at his shows while crafting a contract so he can get paid for not performing a full set.
But BOO to Cornell for playing into his hands. And DOUBLE BOO to Cornell for not marching TI off the stage once he made his vague threat. How tough would he have looked with the power cut to the stage? No more mic, no more sound effects… until you apologize for being rude while a guest on our Hill. Heh.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
T.I. isn’t ridiculous. a bunch of ivy kids trying to be down with T.I. is ridiculous.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
some kids at our school threw water balloons at him. he more or less said the same exact shit.
to p’04, my school, bentley college, is over 80% white. thats even more ridiculous.
May 11th, 2007 at 10:49 am
i was genuinelly hoping when i clicked on this link that texas instruments had gone after a kid. it would make more sense.
May 11th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
This kind of crap happens in New Haven every night… concert or not!
May 12th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
haha, he pretended like he was going to jump in the crowd and fight… when he was like, I saw you, and runs accross stage to stop short of jumping off when he gets to the other side. another couple of times he pretended like he was going to jump into the crowd but waited for his home boys to hold him back. and I really think he was alreadyt finishing his last song (what you know about that?) when he just left the stage. but he made it look like he was leaving early.
May 12th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
haha, T.I. looks a lot like my 7th grade math teacher Mr. Flowers… Wonder if thats him. hey no one knows what T.I. stands for anyways
May 13th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
people need to lighten up about the gunshot noises. they were stupid kitschy sound effects to make t.i. look like a badass (even though he’s a little bitch), and had no connection whatsoever to the virginia tech tragedy. come on!
May 13th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
I think it’s a repeat from Bentley’s Spring Fling. I suppose it’s an attempt to regain street cred. That pretty much goes out the window the moment you decide to perform at Yale, Cornell, etc. He sucks and no amount of high-grade weed could make his very brief and very bad act better.
Outkast 08, b*tches!
May 14th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
I don’t think it was staged. People have thrown water bottles every year…it’s actually quite annoying…
May 15th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Congrats on the great lineups you’ve had.
We’ve also had Snoop, Talib, Cunninlynguists, Twista.
CU > Cornell? Nope, sorry, not even on this one.
May 15th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Dear Big Red,
Stop trying to pay acts to come to Ithaca. And then charge students admission.
Columbia gets who they want and offers everything for free. All else fails, just go see one of the many legit shows in Harlem, Brooklyn, Madison Square, Webster Hall, Hammerstein Ballroom–acts of all types.
Sorry dude. What makes you think T.I. is NYC style anyways?
May 16th, 2007 at 1:47 am
to cornell get a life: stop. cornell rules. go big red. and yes, ti was terrible. student admission: nope.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:27 am
to “columbia”:
we had snoop and twista, and don’t even fuckin act like twista is any good, shows what you know about hip hop. we’ve had lupe fiasco and kanye also, arguably the greatest MCs out now.
to “get a life”:
students aren’t charged admission, slope day is free.
to everyone else:
it wasn’t fuckin scripted, real students were drunk and throwin water bottles, however TI was all talk, hes a punk.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:33 am
oh and two more clips from the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2EXo7IZEoA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiDpcQr_CjA
May 27th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
fucka TI hater. TI hella gully. he will split ya wig, ya dig
June 27th, 2007 at 1:28 am
T.I. is the K*I*N*G* !
Now on the other hand 50 is the Boss he don’t need to win awards.
Just go buy their albums and relax.