T.I.

Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1980 and was raised by his grandparents. By age seven little Clifford was rapping. As he grew older and was exposed to the nefarious underbelly of society, Clifford took to drug dealing as a means to sustain himself. By age 14 he'd been arrested several times. Luckily, for Clifford, he was discovered by one of his great-grandfathers, who happened to be a record executive, and was signed to a label. Changing his name to T.I. and releasing his first album in 2001 led the rapper to lasting commercial success.