As T.I. gears up for the release of his upcoming Paperwork LP, MTV has ranked his past releases in order from best to worst. According to the network's ranking, Tip's sophomore album Trap Muzik is his best studio release to date.
Ahead of the Oct. 21 release of Paperwork, Rob Markman touches on all nine of T.I.'s albums. Markman deemed the 2003 Trap Muzik release as Tip's best, noting his cultivation of trap music as a hip-hop subgenre.
"Trap music wasn't the hip-hop sub-genre it is today, and the idea of a southern dope boy as a rap star was foreign," he wrote.
Tip's 2006 album King is ranked at No. 2.
"Not only did he land a starring role in ATL, he earned his first Billboard/number one album with King," he wrote.
Urban Legend, released in 2004, rounded out the top three, followed by Paper Trail and Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head at Nos. 4 and 5.
T.I.'s new album Paperwork bypasses a few older releases, taking the No. 6 spot on the list. Markman gives the Atlanta rapper props for expanding yet staying true to his sound, commenting that he "raps for a broader audience, but he keeps it all the way hood on" his latest Young Thug feature single.
The list is capped off by I'm Serious at No. 7, T.I. vs. T.I.P. at No. 8 and No Mercy at No. 9.
Back in July, T.I. explained his upcoming album as an extension of his most commercially successful release in Paper Trail.
"I think one of my most diversified albums and I guess the most commercially successful has been Paper Trail," he said. "I always wanted to do a continuation of that but without saying 'Part 2.' I just tried to figure out another way to relate this next project to that one without making it a sequel."
Read MTV's ranking in-depth here.
