T.I. who co-founded his own record label Grand Hustle Entertainment with longtime manager Jason Geter in 2003 and has been operating under the Warner umbrella with distribution by Atlantic Records since, will now also be represented by Hip Hop Since 1978, the firm that also represents Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Drake and others. “Gee’s always been a big part of our operation just not in the capacity of manager,” said T.I., in reference to “Gee” Roberson, HHS1978’s co-CEO, who recently left his position as VP of A&R at Atlantic Records to become Chairman at Geffen.

“[From] the executive producer standpoint and A&R standpoint, he made gigantic contributions to probably the past three or four T.I. albums, but he’s assumed a large responsibility over at Geffen so that kind of took a big part of my team away. When [Jason Geter] and I both agreed that we would be considering expanding the management team, and then sat down and talked about possible candidates, he was definitely one of the first people that came up.”

When asked when the arrangement with HHS1978 was formalized, T.I. demurred. “Once again, it’s a team, it’s a collective,” he said. “It’s an unconventional arrangement as far as management. Of course you also have Grand Hustle management – Jason still maintains his position. You have Gee and [Hip Hop Since] ’78 who come in with their expertise in several areas, who works alongside [Jason]. And then you got Category 5, Brian Sher [founder of Category 5 Entertainment, formerly of ICM], who’s there from the film and television area. I’ve got different pieces of management who have extreme levels of expertise in their areas… We feel that’s the best way to have appropriate execution and to take advantage of all the opportunities that are ever present in the marketplace for me.”

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