T.I. Wins Two BET Awards from Prison

Rapper T.I. won two BET Hip-Hop Awards on Saturday night: best collaboration with Rihanna for “Live Your Life,” and album of the year for “Paper Trail.”

The rapper was unable to collect his awards because of a federal weapons conviction that will keep him in prison until March 26, 2010, but fiance Tameka Cottle accepted the awards and read a letter from T.I. to the audience.

“Although I’m not there with you all, I’m there in spirit,” Cottle said. “My road to redemption is almost over.”

Meanwhile, DJ AM posthumously won “DJ of the Year,” Jay-Z earned “MVP of the Year,” Drake won “Rookie of the Year” and Ice Cube landed the “I Am Hip-Hop” Award.

The BET Hip-Hop Awards will air on Oct. 27.

T.I. Sentenced to One Year in Prison

T.I. has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison, stemming from a felony weapons charge in October 2007.

The Grammy-winning rapper, who has sought to reform his image in recent months by performing community service and speaking to students about his mistakes, will also be required to attend drug counseling, DNA testing and random searches following his sentence.

T.I.’s Last Weeks of Freedom

A solemn T.I. performs at BET’s Rip the Runway in New York Saturday.

This performance was one of the last before the rapper will begin a yearlong jail sentence for possession of federal firearms next month.

In an effort to reduce his sentence, T.I. has spent time speaking to high school students about the mistakes he’s made.

Said T.I., to an Atlanta class Friday:

“You can see from me that nobody is too rich, too famous, too cool, too good-looking or too young to make a mistake a pay a price for it. More important than the mistake you make, though, is what you are able to take away from that mistake. How can you use that mistake to ensure you will never make a similar mistake again?“

M.I.A. Does Not Give Birth at Grammys

Woulda been awesome, but M.I.A.‘s water did not break onstage during her Grammys performance tonight.

Instead, she, Kanye West, T.I., Jay-Z and Lil Wayne performed a slightly chaotic rendition of “Swagger Like Us.”

We were secretly hoping that the stress of sharing the stage with rap’s elitists would have induced her pregnancy!!!

Oh well.

JT and T.I.: Gloomiest Video Ever

Couldn’t have picked a nicer day to shoot???

Justin Timberlake and T.I. on the set of their new music video Thursday in Lancaster, PA.

Lancaster! Clouds! Oversized coats! The whole thing screams misery!!

In their defense, the song is, “Dead and Gone.”

Hopefully there will at least be a flashback to Alive and Happy!