T.I. Allegedly Punches Ludacris' Manager

By: Yves Erwin Salomon

Rapper and actor T.I. has openly shared that he can be a different person when his alter ego T.I.P. comes to the forefront. That may have been what happened on Sunday (June 24th), at a luncheon for Warner Music executive Kevin Liles in Los Angeles. MTV.com reports that Ludacris and his manager, Chaka Zulu, showed up three hours into the event, which was called Make It Happen after Liles'successful book. Shortly thereafter, T.I. allegedly punched Zulu in the face and the two got into a shoving match.

The event was also attended by Holly Robinson Peete, who was the guest of honor, Yung Joc, Musiq, Twista, Brandy, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth and Omar Epps.

This isn't the first time that the two camps have been at odds. In 2004, the beef between the two men almost came to a head when T.I. dissed Ludacris on Young Buck's "Stomp," from his platinum selling debut, Straight Outta Cashville. Buck later played the song for Ludacris, who added a verse dissing T.I. to the song. Unfortunately T.I. was later replaced by the Game on the final version of the song.

Following that incident, T.I. said the beef wasn't that deep. He said: "Me and Cris cool. We talked on the phone. You know we sat down, you know, aired it out, you know what I'm sayin'? I expressed my concerns. He expressed his concerns and we just kinda came to the agreement that it wasn't really worth it."

T.I. added: "Nobody posed a threat to the other's health or well-being, so it wasn't really no reason to be going back and forth on records or mugging each other in the club. So we're cool now. You know we plan on working together in the future."

The latest dust-up may have something to do with T.I.'s new song, "You Know What It Is" featuring Wyclef Jean, from his forthcoming album, T.I. v T.I.P., which hits stores on July 3rd. On the song, T.I. raps "had the album of the year, Grammy or not."