''It's Rather Petty To Hold Someone's Feet To the Fire''
6:00AM ET November 24th, 2010
Contributor : Hip Hop Blog Staff
A Rocky Williform Company

In his recent cover story with VIBE magazine, (conducted prior to his return to prison), rapper T.I. shares his frustrations regarding his return to prison and reveals that he thinks he is being unfairly persecuted for what he describes as a 'petty' offense. He also discusses the backlash he's received from the general public following his September 1st arrest for possession in Los Angeles.

"If I place my value in the way humans treat me, then maybe. But they're human, man?they can't help themselves. They do that to people they know personally. So how can I expect them to treat me, only knowing me through television? They did that to Jesus. They did that to Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali. They did it to every great person you could possibly think of. When it was all good, they was with them. When things got bad, then they was against them."

"If you look at a guy who came up, no pops in the house, moms on welfare, food stamps; started selling dope when he was 12, 13 years old, came up handling guns, being in shoot-outs; started going to jail when he was 15. In all of this chaos and this mischief and lawlessness, the person who was just in jail for machine guns and silencers turns his life around. And now you want to crucify him ?for what? Three pills. I mean, of course it's wrong and unacceptable and inexcusable. No problem. But in the grand scheme of things, it's rather petty. It's rather petty to hold someone's feet to the fire for something so small when they have overcame things that were so big. All that could have been going wrong?if I was riding with more guns, or if I had gotten into a shoot-out and killed somebody, then I could see that. But just think about it. I've gotten it down to this much."