The new T.I. could have been way worse
According to Last Week's Poll
Is it just me, or was the release of the new T.I. album Paper Trail not nearly as momentous an occasion as one might have expected?
Yeah, I'm aware that it sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 400,000 copies its first week out, which is more than 5 times more than the new Nelly album. But it's still less than half as many albums as Lil' Wayne sold his first week.
And you'd think you'd be hearing TV T.I. on the radio a lot these days, if only for the fact that something like half of Paper Trail has been released as a single at this point, but that doesn't really seem to be the case.
Evey once in a while, you might hear the trick's anthem, "Whatever You Like." But "Swagger Like Us" and that Numa Numa record never really caught on, despite their high profile guest appearances. (And yet, I hear Jay-Z is planning on including "Swagger Like Us" on Blueprint 3. It just goes to show his judgment these days.)
It's like T.I. vs. T.I.P. all over again. Which is too bad, since I find Paper Trail way more listenable than that album. In fact, I think Paper Trail is a way better album than King, which is hardly as good as people would have you think.
Last week's poll had to do with where Paper Trail fits in XXL's patented rating system. Check the results.
Using XXL's rating system, how would you rate Paper Trail?
- XL (30%)
- L (24.9%)
- S (17.9%)
- XXL (15.7%)
- M (11.4%)
Total Votes: 446
I mentioned back when I reviewed Paper Trail that I probably wouldn't be spending very much more time listening to it. And indeed, I haven't listened to it again since then. Who knows if I ever will.
If I had to rate the album myself, I would have gone with an L. If they'd gotten rid of those god-awful singles and replaced them with a few tracks on the level of a "What You Know," or, better, a "Rubber Band Man," maybe I'd give it an XL, as many of you fruits did.
But, alas, they didn't.
