Is T.I. an angel? Rapper-actor recounts 3 times he saved a stranger's life
T.I. has a miraculous knack for being in the right place at the right time.
The tireless rapper-actor, who has won three Grammys and was recently nominated for a Tony Award (for songwriting on SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical), and will soon star in his second Marvel movie (Ant-Man and the Wasp) and his third reality TV show (BET’s The Grand Hustle), makes headlines every few years for coming to the rescue and helping save a complete stranger’s life.
In a recent sit-down with Yahoo Entertainment the 37-year-old ATLien, also known as Tip Harris, told his side of the stories, starting in 2006 with his most high-profile encounter, in which he came to aid of Scott Stapp, the lead singer of the popular ’90s rock band Creed (watch above).
“[He’s] a phenomenal guy who found himself in a tough emotional spot, and he tried to kill himself. He wanted to jump to his death,” said T.I., who was smoking a joint with a friend on the balcony outside of his room in Miami’s Delano Hotel when he heard Stapp, who had plunged 40 feet from the penthouse, land above him. T.I. called out to Stapp, who fractured his skull and broke his hip and nose during the fall. “He said his girlfriend had cheated on him with one of his best friends or something like that, and he said ‘I just want to die.’ We talked him into allowing us to call some help for him, and they came up and got him.”
T.I. never talked about the incident until Stapp credited him with saving his life in the opening of his 2012 biography, Sinner’s Creed. “I was just a person out on a balcony smoking a joint, able to do the right thing at the right time.”
In 2010, T.I. was en route to a video shoot in Atlanta when he heard on the radio that a man was on top of the station’s 22-story building and about to jump. “[There] was a point where I could either get off on this exit and help, or just continue to go to the video shoot. Something just compelled me to get off,” he said. T.I. volunteered his services to the crisis negotiation team. “So I recorded a video message and they showed it to him, and he came down.”
Super Tip struck again in 2014. He was driving along Crenshaw Blvd. in Los Angeles when he witnessed a car crash that left one vehicle flipped on its side. “So I pulled over, hopped out, looked, and there was somebody [stuck] in the car,” T.I. said. “So I jumped in and reached in … and me and some more good Samaritans helped pull her out of the car. And she looked and said, ‘Is that T.I.?!’ I said, ‘I’ve got to go.'”
T.I. has had some issues with the law over the years, having been arrested multiple times for charges ranging from drug possession to felony gun charges. But three lives saved over the course of one decade is some impressive societal retribution.
And it all begs the question: Is T.I. an angel? “I don’t think I’m qualified to say yes to that,” he laughed.
Ant-Man and the Wasp opens July 6, while The Grand Hustle debuts on BET on July 19.
Watch: T.I.’s Ant-Man co-star Paul Rudd prove he’s not actually nice:
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