Fame Didn't Affect T.I.'s Prison Treatment

Rapper T.I. found his celebrity made little difference on his daily life in prison, although the guards would sometimes punish him for being famous. The 26-year-old served time in Cobb County, Georgia for violating his probation in relation to a late '90s conviction for drug-dealing. But T.I.'s celebrity didn't necessarily guarantee him an easier existence behind bars. He tells Blender magazine, "(Fame) made it easier because I had a reputation that preceded me, so there wasn't a lot of stand-offish situations. People only gonna mess with you if the s**t you kickin' ain't real." "C.O.s, though, some of them would go out of their way to make my life a little harder sometimes. I'd ask them to keep the phone on an extra 30 minutes - they'd cut it off 30 minutes early. Just to say, 'It doesn't matter who you are.'" http://www.thebeatstlouis.com/cc-common/news/news_music.html