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:
“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“... the majority of colored men do not yet think it worth while that women aspire to higher education.... The three R’s, a little music and a good deal of dancing, a first rate dress-maker and a bottle of magnolia balm, are quite enough generally to render charming any woman possessed of tact and the capacity for worshipping masculinity.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)