“When these metaphors converge, we see “paper trail” as being a juxtaposition of money, fame, personal reflection, conflicting narratives, and consequences.  T.I.’s paper trail shares all the meanings of America’s paper trail.” — Part 3.1: Paper Trails

Like many Americans, T.I. seems to have embraced the multifaceted capitalist fantasy individualism.  The myth goes something like this: personal effort creates personal wealth, money grants one deserved power, and this power should be used to support the capitalist ideology that supposedly enabled this entire narrative of individual success.  The song “Whatever You Like” celebrates T.I’s ability to give his “chick whatever she wants,” as it simultaneously commands those “other broke n*ggas” to be quiet.  If we take this song literally, we would have to conclude that it indeed endorses the ideology that I outlined above.

However, the music video for “Whatever You Like” challenges this literal understanding of the song and encourages us to question our own understandings of socioeconomic ideologies (how money and society shape each other).

The video starts with a mashup of the capitalist fantasy and the sociological understanding of capitalism’s sturdy class structure.  After walking through the kitchen of a fast food chicken restaurant (complete with audible laments of a tiring, busy day), the camera reveals T.I. and his entourage asking a shocked female cashier for some hot wings.  Then the fantasy kicks in, as if it is meant to silence an exploration of the stark contrasts between the two characters’ sociological situation.  T.I. claims that the woman is too cute to be working at a chicken joint then drops his phone number, launching the woman and the audience into a “behind the scenes” look at–and participation in–T.I.’s extravagant lifestyle.  The images speak for themselves, but in a nutshell, T.I. takes pleasure in using his material wealth to lavish her with luxuries, erase her boyfriend, and revel in his own economic power.  This seems like a logical representation of the song.

However, the end of the video suggests otherwise.

The fantasy is revealed to indeed be purely fantasy when the woman’s boyfriend wakes her from a daydream just as T.I. is pulling out of the parking lot.  Instead of leaving his phone number, T.I. actually left a crumpled one hundred dollar bill.  A bit hung over from her daydream, the woman agrees to help her boyfriend braid his hair again, although we’re not sure if she’s going to do it for free or charge him.

The video leaves it ambiguous as to whether T.I.’s fleeting presence encourages her to do it for free (and pass on T.I.’s generosity) or charge him (and play the role of the individual capitalist).  Like the citizens of America, the woman must decide between unselfishly contributing to the common wealth or embarking on an individualistic fantasy.

Or maybe the video suggests something in between… something more pragmatic… something, perhaps, more similar to Obama’s plans. (I’m not say’n that Obama’s plans are perfect.  They have many flaws, but they’re a step in the right direction)

T.I.’s presence in the video suggests a middle ground upon which individual success goes hand in hand with contributions to the general welfare of a community.  Although T.I. used fantasy to entertain the cashier, he also gave her something very real: a Benjamin, or should I say, a piece of paper worth one hundred dollars.  If this is representative of how T.I. tips all of his servers, we should be encouraged to see his actions as a form of community development rather than a moment of personal boasting or a simple “hand out.”  With the hope of a better life (one closer to T.I.’s) combined with a material investment in a life outside of a fast food joint (the C-note), the woman might now have both the psychological and material impetus to start her own hair saloon.  Maybe she will still charge her boyfriend, but maybe not as much as last time, and maybe one day she will be able to walk into a chicken joint and do for another what T.I. did for her.  This is the type of balance that Obama’s economic rhetoric and policy initiatives have been striking when they are at their best, and we would all do well to explore and support this balance in order to get out of the current crisis.

With some thoughtful participation in our political and economic institutions (both local and global), maybe more of us will be able to sort out our paper trails by the time T.I. is released from prison.

“I work for myself and no one else cause I’m too smart too,

Put one of my partners right through culinary art school,

Now he my personal chef so that bread he get it,

Put them all in houses, cleaned up all of my friends credit.

And now they witness all the glitz and the glamor,

Catch us eating at straits Atlanta with women with table manners,

Order in Singapore and lobster,

Celebrating coming from nothing to winning Grammys and rappers winning Oscars.

And they say rappers shouldn’t act, naw suckers,

We see Samuel L. Jackson like: ‘What’s up mother fucker!’”

–Ludacris in “On Top of the World,” Paper Trail