When T.I. came out with his third album in 2004, Urban Legend, he declared himself “king of the south”. Jaws dropped, feathers were ruffled. “T-who?” we all said. After all, there were plenty of dudes putting it down in South for longer, with greater track records. The thing was, while everyone post-Biggie was fighting over the NYC crown, T.I.P. was the only one down south brave enough to put his flag down and crown himself rap royalty in that region. But if you tell people something over and over again, and whether it’s true or not, eventually they will start to believe it. With his fourth album, King, T.I. makes the differentiation that he is instead “a king amongst kings”, most likely after angering a handful of his peers. Is he truly the King, or does he just like to call himself that?

      Just two weeks into it’s release, King has come out with the guns blazing, with a whopping four incredible singles making the rounds at radio, club, video shows, not to mention a half-million CD players at the moment. It all started with the bouncy slow-roller, “Ride With Me”, which sneaked up on listeners as a part of the ATL soundtrack, as T.I. describes his hood for the listeners, over producer Keith Mack’s ceremonial horns. He followed with the sticky drawl of “What You Know”, which, with it’s undeniable cool, is quickly becoming an early contender for major label single of the year. Throwing heads for a complete curveball, just hitting radio now is “Why You Wanna”, which boldly interpolates elements of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Find A Way” and Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman”, and transforms them into a ridiculously fly love song. As if there wasn’t enough looming buzz already, the video for “Front To Back” just hit, a quintessential screwed-up car song, featuring T.I. and UGK paying tribute to their rides with effortless panache, over an infectious Mannie Fresh track. 

      With four excellent singles in the air, how does the rest of the record hold up? Surprisingly, while he might claim to be the king of the south, T.I. taps talent from outside the region for many of his album tracks. Just Blaze chimes in for a pair of beats, starting off with the energetic “King Back”, which drips with 70′s swagger and Just’s signature style. “Talkin’ To You”, Just’s other contribution to the album, finds T.I. trading his usual laid back personality for a more abrasive style, shoving double-time rhymes into Blaze’s aggro track. “Bring ‘Em Out” collaborator, Swizz Beats teams back with T.I. for King as well, delivering a worthy follow-up in “Get It”, which sounds the alarms with a similar type of energy found on their last collaboration. Pharrell and Common chime in for “Goodlife”, which despite the fact that the Neptunes forgot to add any bass to the track, still ends up working pretty well. 

    But while T.I’s got the dough to splurge on some of these big name producers, he doesn’t really need to, as some of his best beats come from right off his own block.  “I’m Straight” is a masterful Nick Fury production, which finds T.I. teaming with fellow trap musicians Young Jeezy and B.G, as the trio compete for coolness. Frequent Trick Daddy collaborator Tony Galvin delivers one of the album’s most impressive tracks with “You Know Who”, which could easily be mistaken for a Just Blaze beat, with it’s chopped vocal sample and heavy horns. Meanwhile, “Why You Wanna” producer Kevin “Khao” Cates brings “Stand Up Guy”, an energetic club-knocker, tailor-made for T.I’s nonchalant air. “Ride With Me” producer Keith Mack delivers another as well, with the excellent “Told You So”, where T.I. looks at his career thus far. “I told you so / you thought Outkast came in and closed the door? / Luda just came in and sold us four? / I told you so / I said the future right up under your nose / you thought the south wouldn’t to explode no more? / remember, I told you so,” says the deservedly gloating emcee. 

     At 18 tracks in length, there is room for a few missteps, and towards the end, the album does tend to drag a bit, especially with his lesser talented homies taking up mic time on songs like “Undertaker” and “Bankhead”. However King is undoubtedly T.I.’s best album yet. He is in top form with his leisurely style and unabashed flair, and has concocted many of his best songs to date. He just might be the King he claims to be.