2010 saw T.I. released from a year-and-a-day-prison-sentence early this year, only to see him sent back to prison for an additional 11 months for violating his probation on September 1st. The parole violation was yet another setback for the self-proclaimed "King of the South", but what about the music? Originally entitled King Uncaged, when the title was annouced last summer, TIP, had to do a quick title change to reflect his current situation. Finally, the much-delayed- No Mercy will be T.I.'s next shot on his road to redemption. Surprisingly, No Mercy is rather upbeat for a man who has seen more dark days than light ones. TIP only touches on his jail- time on tracks like the album's title track featuring The-Dream, the Christina Aguilea- featured "Castle Walls", and the Neptunes-produced-Chris Brown-assisted lead single "Get Back Up". The latter, finds the King coming clean, with lines like: " I admit, yeah, I done some dumb shit/ Disappointed everybody I know/ Try not to hold that against me though/ My road to redemption has no GPS/ So guess the time must be invested/ For this to be manifested." While most songs gravitate towards the clubs (i.e. "Strip" featuring Young Dro and Trey Songz and "Poppin Bottles" with Drake). T.I. is at his best when he's not jumping on furniture in VIP and takes a more retrospective route. The church organ-filled "How Life Changed" features Scarface and the orginal Queen of Hip Hop soul, Mitchelle'l, and is one of the album's strongest cuts. On "That's All She Wrote" (arguably the best song on the album) finds TIP reuniting with Eminem, as the two MC's go on a rampage and deliver some compelling verses. No Mercy at times can feel rushed, due to the time contraint when it was constructed, and it doesn't have the pizazz of his last effort Paper Trail (considered by some to be his best work next to Urban Legend), but the album does have many bright spots and is entertaining throughout, because of T.I.'s undeiable talent. Let's just hope TIP has learned from his past mistakes, so the next time around, his path towards redemption is a smoother one.
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