Music
The central theme of the album is T.I.'s arrival on the rap scene, which is particularly evident in songs like the eponymous "I'm Serious" that focus on boasts about his own rapping prowess. Although he starts out the album with an intro alluding to his prowess as a Pimp, Drug dealer, and Hustler, T.I.'s storytelling ability is on full display in the album's first song Still Ain't Forgave Myself in which he illuminates the life experiences that led to his current position. Even though most of the other cuts on I'M SERIOUS find him reveling in that role, T.I. possesses the narrative skill, dramatic overview, and low-key delivery that allow his gangsta boasts to go down easily. Chooz U and the Too Short collaboration Hotel are two other songs where T.I.'s rapping ability shines in the album, and the beats help emphasize his ability. He is also very aware of his roots on the album, as references to various locales in Atlanta, Georgia like Campbellton Road, Old National, Bankhead and College Park, Georgia are scattered throughout the album.
Prior to the album's release T.I confirmed that guests on the album would include Mac Boney, Pharrell Williams, Too Short, P$C, Bone Crusher, YoungBloodZ, Pastor Troy and Lil Jon. The album also featured production from various artists including DJ Toomp, Craig Love, Maseo, Brian Kidd, The Neptunes, Jazze Pha, Yung D, Lil Jon and T.I. himself. The album's production is one of its strongest points with an abnormally strong cast of producers for an underground rapper's debut album.
Read more about this topic: I'm Serious
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“I’ve come close to matching the feeling of that night in 1944 in music, when I first heard Diz and Bird, but I’ve never got there.... I’m always looking for it, listening and feeling for it, though, trying to always feel it in and through the music I play every day.”
—Miles Davis (1926–1991)
“Words move, music moves
Only in time; but that which is only living
Can only die. Words, after speech, reach
Into the silence.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“On the first days, like a piece of music that one will later be mad about, but that one does not yet distinguish, that which I was to love so much in [Bergotte’s] style was not yet clear to me. I could not put down the novel that I was reading, but I thought that I was only interested in the subject, as in the first moments of love when one goes every day to see a woman at some gathering, or some pastime, by the amusements to which one believes to be attracted.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)