Songoftheday 09/25/24 - Call me trouble man always in trouble man, worth a couple hundred grand Chevys all colors man...

 

 

"Rubber Band Man" - T.I.

from the album Trap Musik (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #30 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 7

 

Today's song comes from rapper T.I., who grew up as Clifford Harris Jr. in Atlanta. Starting to rap when he was a child, T.I. was eventually discovered by an executive at Arista Records where he was signed to their Ghett-O-Vision label as a teen. In 2001 the rapper released his first album I'm Serious. But after the album stalled at #98 on the Billboard 200 despite being pumped up with heavy hitters in the production side like the Neptunes and Jazze Pha, he was dumped from the label. (It's notable he sold in the 100-200K range, something today's artists would kill their family for.)

 

Fast forward to 2003, after put out a series of mixtapes on his own, T.I. appeared on the single "Never Scared" by So So Def Records rapper Bone Crusher, which became a big R&B/hip-hop hit that crossed over to the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100. Because of that, T.I. got a second chance and was signed to Atlantic Records under his own brand Grand Hustle. In the summer of that year, T.I. released his first set at the new label, Trap Musik. It was preceded that spring with "24's", which referred to the size of wheel rims. The track went to #78 on the Hot 100, #27 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart (becoming one of the 100 biggest hits that year), and #15 on the Rap Singles list. That was followed by "Be Easy", which stalled at #55 on the R&B Singles chart. 

With the momentum from "Never Scared" that fall, T.I.'s third single, "Rubber Band Man", got a lot more attention. Written by the rapper with producer David Banner (a rapper in his own right that will eventually be in this series), the track has T.I. detailing his criminal career (which is extensive) and bragging about how he's as "wild" as a certain terrorist group. The "rubber man" references the stacks of bills held together he has from both his past and his new calling. The production from Banner is primitive and even juvenile at the end with the kids sing-songing along. But with a cameo-filled video including of course P. freaking Diddy, T.I. found himself with his first crossover urban radio hit as a lead...

"Rubber Band Man" became T.I.'s second top-40 hit on Billboard's Hot 100, and first as a lead artist, in March of 2004, while peaking at #15 on their R&B Singles chart and #11 on the Rap Singles list. On the radio, the song hit #9 on the Mainstream R&B Airplay chart and #21 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. The Trap Muzik album (which would go on to lend its name to one of the biggest subsets of the genre) rose to #4 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #2 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list, going on to sell over a million copies. 

Both T.I. and the Trap Muzik album will be back to the series. 

(2/10)

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Here's T.I. and David Banner performing the song in 2007 in their Atlanta hometown...

Up tomorrow: R&B songstress ponders a potential loss.