Rapper T.I. defends his special plea and sentencing deal

Recently sentenced rapper T.I. is talking about his sentencing fate in ways that may add heat to the debate over whether he got special treatment.  This MTV story has some of the choice quotes from T.I.'s first post-sentencing interview:

The sentencing judge called it "experimental." The U.S. attorney who helped broker the arrangement called it "unique."  And T.I. himself acknowledged that his plea deal — which reduced a potential 10-year prison term into community service and, more than likely, less than a year's worth of jail time — was "an opportunity."

T.I. wasn't the recipient of the plea deal because he snitched, he's often said.  Nor did he get the benefit of the doubt from the legal system because he's rich.  Tip landed his plea deal due to a combination of his fame, his familiar troubled past and his ability to recount his transformation from trap star to rap star as a means of influencing at-risk youth.

"If they would have gave Joe Blow, who got arrested with guns the next day or the next week — if [the court] would have gave him my deal, could he have turned around and given as much back to the community as I have? No he couldn't,"  T.I. told MTV News....  "I showed I was worthy of this and this was something possible," Tip continued. "So they decided the opportunity was worth the chance."