T.I.'s Road to Redemption has some redeeming qualities

02/27/09 - Hard-knock ghettos aren't the most nurturing of environments. It doesn't take a team of social workers to see that growing up in a place where dealing crack and hustling count as after-school activities (usually) doesn't bode well for a kid's future.But thankfully, disenfranchised youths born into less-than-desirable circumstances have a new, outspoken mentor in the form of rap phenom, T.I.

And, really- who better to mentor disenfranchised kids than a commercial rapper facing up to 30 years in jail for trying to buy a bunch of machine guns and silencers?

Like the old saying goes: when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. And if you get arrested for trying to illegally procure automatic weapons and you're facing up to 30 years in jail.. make a reality show.

"T.I.'s Road to Redemption" chronicles the rapper's final days before he ships off to prison. He's using these final days to guide hood-reared hustlers off the grim road of violence and despair, and into a future of upstanding respectability.

And how does T.I. plan to help these wayward kids? Well, he has his own, patented four-step program guaranteed to help even the most hardened hoodlum straighten up and fly right.

As T.I., who sits in a leather chair, hands clasped, explains: "Giving attention to these youngsters and encouraging them is a four step process. First, you gotta show them what they doing wrong."

This is, apparently, accomplished by deceiving the kids into thinking they're participating in an MTV documentary about gangbangers or hustlers. Then, while the young gangbanger or hustler is being interviewed, T.I. breaks into his house, startles him, and confronts him with the hard truth.

In the second episode, "Own Your Mistakes," T.I. does this and then proceeds to put the confused young hooligan in his car and drive away. "I'm gonna take him on a ride that he'll never forget," T.I. says at this juncture. Well, true, this kid isn't going to forget it any time soon.

But it's probably more because a multi-millionaire rap star just busted into his house, kidnapped him in his Benz, and forced him to listen to a bunch of tragic stories than, you know, the fact that T.I. is laying such revelatory insights on him.

But anyway, mission accomplished, T.I.

Step two is called "The Reality." In this step of the reformation process, T.I. gives the kids the cold, hard truth. T.I. spits some serious wisdom in this segment, offering up hard-won chunks of knowledge like, "Trey has it in his mind that it's cool to gangbang. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Word, T.I., gangbanging isn't cool at all.

Step three is called "Show 'Em the Future if They Don't Change Their Ways." Like a slightly more hood version of the ghost of Christmas future, T.I. explains what will happen to Trey if he doesn't change his ways and stop gangbanging.

This time, T.I.'s uncle, (clad, unexpectedly, in an AC/DC shirt) gets in on the act too, prophesizing, " The only two options you have are you gonna die or you gonna go to prison. That's not cool at all. You don't even wanna have those two things to choose from."

"Not cool," indeed. Prison is about as uncool as it gets- unless, of course, you think wearing orange leisure suits, being someone's bitch and living in constant fear of dropping the soap is cool. Dying is obviously a bad option too; death definitely puts a damper on your swagger.

Step four is a lot more hopeful; this step is called "Inspire Change." In this segment, T.I. does something really awesome for the kid in order to show him what he can achieve if he stops running with the wrong crowd.

With Trey, for example, T.I. takes him to an awards show and introduces him to everyone as a reformed gangbanger... which must've been really great for Trey's self esteem. I'm not an expert like T.I., but I'm not sure that being called out as a former gangbanger in front of a roomful of celebrities is crucial for building character.

At least, in his speech, T.I. mentioned that Trey was keeping his grades up.

Sadly, "T.I.'s Road to Redemption" is going to be a pretty short-lived series, if only because T.I.'s formal sentencing is coming up in March, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. Rarely do you get to see rap stars flex their mentoring skills, and T.I.'s definitely seen enough shit go down to offer up some sage advice.

So, are rap stars the new mentors? Maybe. For better or worse, kids are a lot more likely to listen to an iced-out rap star than their unhelpful hack of a guidance counselor. His "four-step process" is dubious at best, but at least T.I.'s heart is in the right place.

T.I. seems genuinely eager to help these mini-gangsters, but if he wants to make a lasting impression he should start a legit foundation or a charity-maybe something along the "Zoolander"-esque lines of "T.I.'s Center for Kids Who Can't Follow the Law Good and Want to Learn How to do Other Stuff Good Too.