Rapper T.I. had barely spent 48 hours in the custody of VH1 before he went right back to federal prison, ordered to serve out the rest of the sentence from which he had received an early release on Tuesday. According to law enforcement officials who spoke to TMZ, the reason for T.I.’s latest arrest had to do with allegedly misleading prison officials that he would be taking a low-key van during the 375-mile trip from Arkansas, but instead rolled up to his new Atlanta halfway house in a “high-end, pimped-out tour bus.” The supposed bait-and-switch violates a requirement that a released prisoner must state specifically what sort of transportation they’ll be using, lest they evade authorities by slipping off in their giant luxury party bus.
In T.I.’s defense, his wife Tameka “Tiny” Cottle claims that there was no deception, and that the prison guards even walked T.I. to his tour bus where they took photos with him and wished him “good luck in life.” And reportedly, even the head of the halfway house debated with the U.S. Marshals who came to arrest T.I., arguing that sending him back for the alleged violation was “ridiculous.” At the moment, the Federal Bureau of Prisons had no comment, only saying that T.I. would now be freed on his original release date, September 29. Anyway, it seems as though T.I.’s new reality show just got a hell of a first episode.