Trap rap pioneer T.I. is walking back earlier comments he made on Instagram Monday after a fan backlash connected his words to the recent shooting of King Von, who died from his injuries on Friday. T.I. tried to explain that he didn’t mean his post to refer to King Von and that he was just speaking generally. “I don’t speak ill of my allies,” he wrote today. “My last post had nothing to do with King Von.”
He continued, “Y’all grossly mistaken. I have no motive or intention to do harm or malice to cats I’m cool wit. My family’s hearts go out to them and I’ve expressed this to the people in his life that matter most in this situation. That’s all I’m concerned with.”
The original tweet was interpreted as a jab toward the Chicagoan King Von, who was shot during an altercation at an Atlanta lounge that escalated from a shoving match to a shootout, involving police Atlanta police officers and leaving three dead, including Von. “Atlanta is a beautiful progressive city filled with black excellence,” his original post read. “We uplift each other & win together. Stop coming here to kill each other. That sh*t is played out.” The caption, which read “Handle YOUR beefs in YOUR city,” prompted Von’s sister to lash out via her own Instagram story and even 50 Cent chimed in.
King Von was fresh off the release of his debut album Welcome To O-Block, released via Lil Durk’s Only The Family Entertainment just one week before his death. Meanwhile, T.I.’s own new album, The L.I.B.R.A., was released in October.