A newly freed T.I. made the press ad party rounds during last weekend's BET Hip-Hop Awards festivities and made a stop at Atlanta's Wild 105.7 radio station. The MC talked a bit more about the exchange between himself and Diddy at a club called Compound recently, which some fans took to be full of ire.

"To be honest with you, it wasn't a point of me trying to check Diddy," T.I. explained to on-air personality Mami Chula. "I was trying to diffuse the situation and keep it from becoming something that could've caused me a potential problem by even just being there.



"My circumstances are different from Diddy's or whoever Diddy was talking to so it was my responsibility at that point to step in and publicly separate myself," he continued. "Now, I had my opinion and my opinion I stated at the same time, I stated out of love for Diddy, not to try and check him or belittle or disrespect him. Me and him go too far back and I value our relationship too much to be grandstanding. That ain't how I get down, I was really just saying 'Come on man, let's get paid and never mind that, what's going on over there. Let's get back to what we're doing over here.' I think people automatically look for any little reason to try to start stuff when there is nothing there.

"Me and Puff, we spoke that night. We spoke the next day, we spoke today and we've been speaking on a regular basis like we have for years. I go to his house, he comes to mine," T.I. added. "My kids know his kids, we have a real personal relationship so I felt that I know and love him enough and have enough respect for him and have enough respect from him to be able to step in and diffuse the situation to keep it from getting to a place where I couldn't do anything. Because once it crosses a certain line, there ain't nothing to say. You just witnessed a brother moment between me and Puff and that was that."

T.I. recently released a new track entitled "I'm Flexin' " featuring Big K.R.I.T.