T.I.: 'PARANOIA LED TO ARREST'

Rapper T.I. blames fear for the safety of his family and his own life for his arrest on illegal weapons charges last year. T.I. - real name Clifford Harris - was arrested while allegedly attempting to buy unregistered machine guns and silencers just hours before he was set to take the stage at the U.S. BET Hip Hop Awards last October. The 27-year-old rapper took a plea deal in March and was sentenced to one year in prison and a minimum of 1,000 hours of community service. After Philant's death, his personal assistance, he got really armed in my opinion and that can be classified paranoia!

He told BET's Access Granted on Wednesday (07May08), "You can't assume everyone out there likes you, so it's easy to get caught up in paranoia." The rapper admits his conviction has changed his outlook on life, and has now adopted an anti-weapons stance. He adds, "I must be a man and stand up and accept responsibility. I can't talk about guns and drugs as elaborately because they're not part of my life anymore. If you think guns, drugs and violence are cool, I think you are definitely missing the point... There's nothing cool about going to jail."

Foxy Brown pleads guilty in BlackBerry case!!

Now what? Less than a month after being released from prison, U.S. rapper Foxy Brown pleaded guilty on Thursday to menacing a woman with her BlackBerry phone and avoided another possible prison sentence.

By pleading guilty, Brown avoided going on trial for assault, a felony charge that carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. Brown was accused of bruising the eye and chipping the tooth of her longtime neighbor Arlene Raymond when she struck the woman with the handheld communications device. On Thursday, Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge John Walsh sentenced Brown to time already served, issued an order of protection and ordered Brown to submit a letter of apology, the spokesman said.

"I apologize for the incident that occurred on July 31, 2007, in that I attempted to scare Arlene Raymond and place her in harm's way," Brown said in a hand-written note.

Lucky you Foxy! Now calm down and sell those cd's!!

SLIM SHADIES?: T.I. BECAME FRIENDS WITH EMINEM AFTER LEGAL TROUBLES!

UPDATE: "Paper Trail" is coming out August 12th. Rapper T.I. has formed a strong bond with EMINEM in recent months, after the hip-hop mogul reached out to the BRING 'EM OUT star to offer his support during his legal woes. T.I. was handed a 1,000-hour community service sentence in March, after pleading guilty to weapons charges relating to his October 2007 arrest, when he allegedly tried to buy unregistered machine guns and silencers. And, while spending several months on house arrest at his Atlanta, Georgia home, T.I. reveals a number of his hip-hop peers got in touch to help him through his troubled times.

But no one was more supportive than Slim Shady star Eminem. Speaking on Atlanta radio station Hot 107.9, T.I. says, "I wasn't expecting to hear from nobody. I made a point not to reach out to people... because I didn't want to get none of my trash in nobody else's yard... "(Young) Jeezy actually came to one of my hearings. ...I spoke to (Lil) Wayne a couple times, spoke to Puff (Sean 'Diddy' Combs), Jay(-Z) a few times. I probably spoke to Busta (Rhymes) the most. "The only person I spoke to more than Busta was Eminem. Me and Eminem stayed in contact, stayed on the phone. Just checking in on each other, making sure one another was doing good. Of course I spoke to Nelly, a lot." Now Clifford, Nelly hasn't had a brush with the law during his career. Above is one of Sandra's photos of Tip last week at Maya Angelou's 80th birthday and one when he was just a boy.