Baton Rouge rapper Boosie Badazz was set to release a collaborative album with Southern icon T.I. However, the project was recently canceled.
The two men had a joint album in the works before Boosie decided to cancel it due to his resolute stance against anyone who provides police with evidence against anyone else. This includes snitching or even providing evidence of death.
Tip Reveals Toot’s Death
The legendary reggae singer Frederick Nathaniel “Toots” Hibbert, aka Toots & the Maytals, passed away in Kingston, Jamaica, Friday (September 11). He was 77 years old.
A vocalist, he founded the Maytals with Henry “Raleigh” Gordon and Nathaniel “Jerry” Matthias and used his gospel harmonizing to create hits like ‘Funky Kingston’ and ‘Pressure Drop’. He also released solo work.
Known for his powerful voice and full-throated singing style, Toots’ music is credited with pioneering the genre of reggae. He released his final album, ‘Got To Be Tough’, in August last year.
Toots & the Maytals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. He was also named a member of the Jamaican Music Hall of Fame.
The singer was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this month and was placed in a medically-induced coma at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston. According to local reports, he was fighting for his life.
Tip Reveals Toot’s Life
Tip has a history of revealing information that others would prefer to keep hidden. In August 2020, on a podcast episode titled Expeditiously, Tip revealed that he and his cousin Toot engaged in a stolen clothing frenzy as teenagers before they became successful.
On this hazy July day in Jamaica’s Reggae Center, Toots is working on new songs in the recording studio. The room is a dank, airless concrete apartment with sickly yellow walls.
He’s sitting at a console, looking out the window to the rusty green of a nearby river. Hundreds of tracks on his latest album, Got to Be Tough, out on August 28th, started from hard drives teetering on the console and stacked in the hallways. Featuring the mellow, grainy voice of Toots and co-produced by Zak Starkey, they’re protest songs that call out slavery, systemic racism, economic injustice, and climate change. They’re Toots’s expression of grief and resilience in a world that’s constantly beating him down.
Tip Reveals Toot’s Gun
During his August 2020 podcast, Tip revealed that he and his cousin Toot had a shady hustle back in the day. According to the Atlanta rapper, they would run a clothing rack and steal upscale garments. Eventually, the two were pulled over by police, and Toot’s gun was found in Tip’s possession. Thankfully, Toot’s lawyer came to the rescue, saving Tip from a lengthy prison stint. This simple admission from Tip 25 years ago has crushed Boosie, who is still baffled as to why he would wait so long to reveal it.
Regardless of whether Tip is being truthful or not, the mere fact that he made this revelation has irrevocably tainted their working relationship.
Tip Reveals Toot’s Snitching
Tip recently revealed that he once snitched on his dead cousin to avoid a jail sentence. In an episode of his podcast “expediTIously,” the rapper said that as teenagers, he and his cousin Toot ran a hustle involving stolen clothes before their careers took off. One day, police pulled them over and found a gun in their possession.
Soon after, Toot died, and Tip’s lawyer came to him with a solution that would allow him to avoid going to prison.
While Boosie Badazz is notoriously antagonistic towards anyone who provides evidence to the police against others, he was devastated when he heard that Tip made the confession on his podcast. And he couldn’t help but feel that it irrevocably tainted their working relationship. This is why he decided to cancel their album together.
