T.I.’s Entertainment Lawyer Johnathan Leonard says Prosecutors and Rapper Both Win

 Jonathan Leonard says all you have to do is watch T.I.’s transformative effect over the youth in his “Road to Redemption” show on MTV to understand why T.I. got the plea deal he received.

“They [prosecuting attorneys] looked at this as an opportunity to make a widespread impact across the country with young people that … the system has essentially not been able to reach in the past,” says Leonard, T.I.’s longtime entertainment attorney.

“When it really started, the charges were extremely serious,” Leonard reminds us. “T.I.P’s criminal history, coupled with the seriousness of those charges, put him in the position of facing — if convicted — many, many years in prison.”

photo by steed media service

 Leonard says the silver lining in this case is that T.I.’s “unbelievable charisma” and transcendent persona have been unveiled while working to transform youth this past year. “He just has an innate charisma that many just don’t possess. He’s got a gift of connecting with people from all walks of life — kids, older people, people from [various] socioeconomic backgrounds. He has [the] ability to relate to them because of the genuine person that he is,” Leonard says.

“[T.I.] now stands on the cusp of doing things that [are] much larger than just music. I always told people who asked me about T.I. [that] I think he’s bigger than music and I think that the events of the last couple of years —things that we’ve seen with his legal struggles, and [his] music and film career have proven … that he has the potential to affect people’s lives in a very, very, very positive way across the board. So I’m excited about what the future holds for him,” Leonard says. –terry shropshire