T.I is a businessman and has a history of putting his money where his mouth is. The Atlanta rapper, actor and reality star has been a mogul for some time now. He has spent years investing in local businesses and many other things alongside his equally successful wife, Tiny Harris. Together, they are the textbook definition of a hip-hop power couple. Legal issues have not kept the couple from growing their empire. Most recently, T.I. posted a video of him visiting a development in Bankhead he and his wife hope to have open by 2022. The building has 143, and its being marketed as affordable housing.
A cheerful T.I. can be heard excitedly pulling up to the development in the 3-minute clip. “Checking on my development here in Bankhead,” he told his 13.9 million followers. He says he is building it next to the old K Mart in the area and plans on it being a “big community.” He says the work is about 40% done. He boasts in the video about how some people are all talk but he can actually show his work. “Imma show mine,” he says, followed by “I’m proud of it. This our first project.” He talks about growing up in the community and remembering doing groceries with his grandmother when he was younger. “We ain’t did it yet we on the way through,” he declares. “If anybody got anything to say about me… don’t look at me look at my work. Look at my moves. We can kill all the cap!”
Speaking on the area, T.I. acknowledged that Bankhead needs a lot of health. “I grew up in the 1980s and ’90s in the Center Hill section of Atlanta, just off Bankhead Highway. Back then, that part of town was considered the lower end of the middle class.” He continued, “After the crack era, the community stalled, and from 1994 to 2012, it became an extremely desolate area for business. There’s no major grocery store chain. There’s no fresh produce. There’s no CVS. There are liquor stores.” Thanks to the BeltLine and Mercedes-Benz Stadium being relatively close, their incentive to help resurrect the area. He also partnered with Killer Mike and purchased the Atlanta Seafood building and claims to have invested in 6 other lots in the area. T.I. maintains that he is doing it all with his own money and has no “private equity financing.”
Last December, T.I also announced plans to partner with an Atlanta-based cannabis company. According to a press release from 2020, “The Georgia-based Harvest Connect buys CBD wholesale and is pursuing licenses to grow hemp and sell medical marijuana. Harvest Connect also owns CBD Store and More located in downtown Roswell on Canton Street, which opened earlier this year.”T.I’s company King of Da South partnered with Harvest Connect with plans to serve their local communities in Atlanta, Georgia. T.I plans to drop a line of CBD products throughout their joint ven ture.
Around the time of the announcement, T.I. said, “I believe my team and I can knock down certain barriers, helping further their vision. We’re excited to be a part of the team.” Their goal is to focus on the health benefits of CBD and not just the recreational ones. They plan on educating people on the ways in which they can approve their overall well-being.
Back in 2019, inspired by the death of Nipsey Hussle, T.I declared he wanted to form the “avengers” of black investment. He went to Capitol Hill with Charlamagne Tha God to discuss Hussle’s impact and how they wanted to pay their respects to him. He compared losing Nip to losing IronMan. Their focus was to funnel more money to the distressed area, what they call “opportunity zones.” Their goal was to get larger businesses to consider investing in their neighborhoods and helping turn the tide in urban communities. That same year he also launched a tech company. Tech Cypha is his investment syndicate created in collaboration with longtime partners Jason Geter and Brandon Lewis. According to reports, “the team focuses on providing startups with capital, marketing, and branding direction through guided mentorship and various partnerships that include leveraging influencers.”
