The rapper-turned-actor T.I. continues to live out his legacy the "grand hustle" way: Fresh off a Tony Award nomination, he has a new show and a new movie debuting this summer.
The multi-platinum artist—also known as Tip Harris—has showed fans that his acting résumé is just as impressive as his music résumé. Having been cast in movies including ATL, American Gangster and Takers, T.I. is now playing the role of Dave in the upcoming Marvel comic film Ant-Man & The Wasp II, set to open in theaters nationwide July 6. Dave is part of the prison group Ant-Man used to belong to with his friend Luis while serving time in jail.
Harris admits that he collected comic books from the legendary Marvel series as a child. He talked about his huge collection of up-to-date X-Men, Wolverine, Spider-Man and Magneto issues. "I only had one or two Black Panther comic books. Now that I think about it, I didn't have any Black Panther stories in my collection," he said. "It's cool to see that they made it into a movie. Ant-Man?!, I didn't have any Ant-Man comics. I knew of him, I saw him in the Avengers comic book, which was a part of my collection, but I didn't have any solo Ant-Man comics."
In addition to Ant-Man, T.I.—once a star of the VH1 reality-TV show T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle—has his eye on a business competition series. The Grand Hustle is set to air on BET on July 19.
On The Grand Hustle, 12 potential executives compete in challenges—"we run them through the gambit of hustle," said T.I."To work for me, you have to be knowledgeable of the functions of music, the functions of film, the functions of television, the functions of fashion."
"Watching the audience tune in and figure [out] who is about business and who is about b****ing is where the entertainment lies in this series," the rapper continued.
Recently T.I. was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Original Score for the hit SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical. As big an accomplishment as it was for the rap superstar, his proudest moment came when he learned his son, Domani, was nominated as well. Even though they lost to David Yazbek's The Band's Visit, T.I. felt that seeing his son being nominated counted as a win.
"For me, it was more rewarding that my son was nominated. I've been nominated for awards before—prestigious ones. For him to be nominated, that was a milestone."
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