T.I. says he and Iggy Azalea have taken a "bit of a rest stop" with their professional relationship.
The rapper sat down for an interview on the "Ebro in the Morning" show and revealed he has "personally" not spoken to the Australia native, despite the fact that he was involved in jump-starting her career and even defended her after multiple public missteps. One of those missteps was her Twitter feud with Q-Tip over cultural appropriation and the history of hip-hop.
"Man, I ain't gonna make no excuses," he said. "But, look, though, the thing is, in her defense, she had a lot thrown at her at one time. Any human being anywhere gonna have a hard time adjusting ... It’s very difficult to be the new kid and to be the butt of the jokes and to be the direction of all the negativity, you know what I mean? … [Iggy] came at a time when culturally, this nation -- which she’s not from here -- we were actually looking for a source for somewhere to place some pent-up aggression. And they just got it for no reason. In some cases, some stuff they brought it upon themselves, and in some cases, it was just the easiest place to put some pent-up aggression.”
He said the Q-Tip incident was a breaking point. While he tried to defend Azalea in that moment, she fanned the flames publicly on Twitter.
Throughout the interview, T.I. used the pronoun "they" instead of "she," explaining that he meant Azalea's team: "She is the nucleus, but there are a lot of other pieces around -- including myself -- that, you know, keep that machine working. And I feel like they have all the tools necessary to overcome and evolve beyond those situations.”
Azalea took to Twitter to respond.
Watch the interview:
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