VH1 Television Network looks to the King of the South, Rapper T.I (Tip Harris) for the next series of “Behind The Music”. T.I shares with us all of the trials & struggles on his path to make it as rap artist, family struggles, knowing right from wrong and gives us some very personal details on his life before rap. T.I has always been an open book for his fans to read, so this comes as no surprise. Check out the sneak peak after the jump…

By the time he was 11 years old, Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., aka Lil Wayne, had lost his virginity, dealt drugs, snorted cocaine and nearly shot himself to death after accidentally pulling the trigger on a gun he found in his mother’s bedroom.

That was life in the dangerous, poverty stricken neighborhood on New Orleans 17th ward, where Lil Wayne grew up. A musical prodigy, hip hop was Wayne’s ticket to a better life.

As a nine year-old, he began recording rhymes with his surrogate family and mentors, Baby and Slim Williams, who owned the fledging label Cash Money Records. Together, they shared in Wayne’s success, first as a teenage sensation with the Hot Boys, then as a solo artist. But Wayne’s path to stardom was littered with personal challenges.