- T.I. shows kids error of his way with 'T.I.'s Road to Redemption'
Grammy-winning rapper T.I., born Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., is facing up to 30 years in jail for weapons charges.
But the 28-year-old father of six is hopeful this dark period in his life won't ultimately define who he is.
To that effect, Harris is currently filming a show with MTV entitled "T.I.'s Road to Redemption: 45 Days to Go," which chronicles his efforts to reach out to teenagers who are headed down the wrong path.
"Right now, there's nothing else you can say about my charges or my circumstance that hasn't already been said, so to keep wasting time on that, it's not worthy and is not significant," Harris told the Daily News. "Impacting the lives of at-risk youths in America and inspiring change? That is. People remember you for the last thing you did. If the last thing that I do isn't negative, you won't have a negative perception of my life."
"T.I.'s Road to Redemption" is not part of Harris' federally mandated 1,000 hours of community service (if Harris completes all 1,000 hours without any other legal infractions, he may only go away for one year - at the time of this interview, he had completed 910 hours).
Rather, it's something he is doing because it's important to him that others learn from his mistakes.
"If you check my résumé, you'll see I was doing this prior to my last arrest," Harris said. "Some people have a passion for finding the cure for cancer. For me, it's impacting at-risk youths and letting them know that you can turn your life around, no matter where you come from."
In the first episode, Harris surprises an Atlanta teen named Pee Wee who hustles on the streets to help his mother pay her bills. To scare him straight, Harris not only locks Pee Wee up in a local jail for a day, he also takes him to a morgue to show him where he could end up.
"What I do with each kid depends on their situation. With Pee Wee, we did what we felt would impact his judgment, what would inspire him and what would motivate him to change," said Harris. "As the season goes on, you'll see that each of the individuals I work with has their own set of issues to deal with and we have to find ways to approach those issues in a way that will have a significant impact."
For viewers who are not familiar with Harris or his run-in with the law, "Road to Redemption" goes into great detail about his charges and why he was caught with three unregistered machine guns and two silencers. The show will also film through Harris' sentencing in March.
"I may have been significantly impacted by certain circumstances, but ultimately, my decisions were my own," said Harris. "As a man, you have to accept responsibility and pay the consequences for the poor decisions you make just as much as you accept praise and take credit for the good decisions that you make."
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