"Em personally reached out to me, and we been speaking ever since, especially since I went through my situation [with having to go to prison]. [He would] just kinda remind me that 'I've been through dark period in my life too. You're gonna make it. You're one of the ones we need, so you're gonna make it. Stand tall and walk the walk.' He just made it a point to always reassure me of the spot that I hold in this thing that we got called hip-hop. It was incredibly helpful. It was incredibly noble of him, in my eyes, to even take the time out to reach out to me."
-Atlanta rapper T.I., speaking to MTV News about the friendship that developed between himself and Marshall Mathers while Tip was incarcerated. T.I. said the bond began simply as a business thing. "My management reached out to his management," he said. "Just in hopes of getting him on a record. He wrote me since I was in the joint. We've spoken several time since I've been back home. We maintain a healthy relationship." Despite the differences in their upbringing and their backgrounds in the music business, Tip thinks he and Eminem are a lot alike. "If you are able to take that experience and learn from it, and you're willing to grow from it, accept the part you've played in it and move forward, I think you're a better person," he said. "That's something that I can see he's experienced that I've experienced, that we both share in common."
The relationship has paid off in the form of a song that the pair will record for T.I.'s upcoming comeback album King Uncaged, which is due to be unleashed on August 17. The pair previously collaborated on "Touchdown," a banger from Tip's 2007 smash hit T.I. vs. T.I.P.