Yo Gotti fans were confused last year when it was rampantly reported that the Memphis-based rapper had joined T.I.‘s Grand Hustle imprint — only for Gotti to deny the claim later. The confusion started with an interview where Tip appeared to state that he had signed Gotti, but Gotti recently explained the situation.
“What happened was, I didn’t necessarily see it, but I heard about it,” said Gotti in an interview with Vlad TV. “When I hit my people about it, they were like, ‘It got chopped up wrong.’ Most of them were like, ‘He didn’t say that.'”
Gotti also explained why, despite the misunderstanding, his relationship with T.I. is strong due to their history.
“It was more like, I f–k with T.I. …Outside of the music, homes showed me s–t, taught me s–t,” he explained. “I’ve been environments [with him] where it ain’t have nothin’ to do with music. It had to do with other business where he let me sit in on meetings and movie s–t, and a whole bunch of other s–t. Like on some little brother s–t. So, I most definitely got nothin’ but respect for him. So, me, personally, I think he respect my hustle. When forming Grand Hustle, I was one of the n—as that he looked at like, ‘I could form it with [him] because homes a real hustler.'”
“We chopped it up about it,” said Gotti. “He ain’t just come out of left field with that. Me and him talked about it a couple of different ways. We just tried to figure out which way it makes sense… for everybody. …I had just done a deal with [Epic Records CEO] L.A. Reid, and like, how could it make sense? …That’s what we were trying to figure out, if it was something possible that we could do.”
