Guest Blogger: Danh V1

In today’s music world, there are many well-known artists that attract millions of fans, some fans like their music; other fans are on the “bandwagon”, but I try to avoid “bandwagons” and listen to artists that I personally like. One of my most favorite artists who I mostly listen to is Clifford Harris or better known as T.I., and his once top chart song Live Your Life featuring Rihanna is my still to this day one of my favorite song. The feel of Live Your Life is very bright and encouraging, what I mean by that is there is no unnecessary cussing or foul language, and the song tells the life of T.I. as he tries to get his life back to normal. The biggest message of this song is to live your life to the fullest and appreciate what you have and not want what you don’t. This song is somewhat similar to Not Afraid by Eminem, because both songs encourage the listener about some aspect of life; they are different because Eminem talks about his recovery from drugs, while T.I. talks about getting his life and family together. To me, one of the greatest lines in Live Your Life is the first two lines when T.I. said “Never mind what haters say, ignore them 'til they fade away. Amazing they ungrateful for after all the games I gave away.” What T.I. did was encourage the listeners, and then talk smack to those that he helped but did not returned the favor. Critics on Billboard.com have recently interviewed T.I. about his new plans and asked why he chose not to follow other artists, T.I. replied by telling them that he wants to be original and unexpected. I completely agree with this, because there are too many similarities in the music industries, and there needs to be changes so music would be more interesting. Overall, T.I. may not be as famous as top chart artists today, but his songs have deep meanings; and not many top chart songs today have meaningful messages in them.