Things got a little heated at Club Compound in Atlanta after the BET Hip Hop Awards this weekend when Diddy got into vodka-fueled confrontation with a fan and T.I. stepped in to mediate. Just to clear the air, Tip, who was recently released from a halfway house after serving nearly a year in jail, stopped by the ATL's Wild 105.7 radio this morning (October 4) to explain the incident and clarify that he has nothing but love for the venerable hip hop mogul.
"I was trying to diffuse the situation and keep it from becoming a situation that could cause me a potential problem just by even being there," T.I. said in an on-air interview. "My circumstances are different than Diddy's and whoever Diddy was talking to, so it was my responsibility at that point to step in and publicly separate myself," he said.
After Diddy, a major spokesman for Ciroc Vodka, began swearing at a club goer who was holding up bottles of rival Grey Goose, T.I. grabbed the microphone and began urging both parties to calm down.
"You got way too much money for that, my n***a," he said to Diddy.
"I had my opinion, which I stated, but I stated that out of love for Diddy, not to try and check him or belittle him or disrespect him," Tip clarified on the radio. "Because me and him, we go too far back, and I value our relationship too much for me to be grandstanding."
"I was just saying 'Nevermind that, let's get past that and get back to what we doin over here.'"
T.I. said those in the press and online who painted the situation to look like he was disrespecting Diddy were misrepresenting what really happened.
"People just look for any little reason to blow things out of proportion when really there is just nothing there. Me and Puff spoke that night, we spoke the next day, we spoke today. We're friends, I go to his house, he comes to mine. My kids know his kids. We have a real, personal relationship. So I feel, I know him enough, I love him enough, I've got enough respect for him and respect from him to diffuse the situation," T.I. said. "Shame on you to everybody that's trying to make this into something other than what it was. You just witnessed a brother moment, and that was that."
Listen to interview here: