T.I. touched off quite the firestorm when he blasted Lil Wayne for Weezy's controversial Nightline interview in which he disparaged Black Lives Matter.

Tip chose to criticize Wayne in a lengthy IG message which included language like "You're disrespecting yourself, bringing shame on your family name & tarnishing your legacy."

Many of those who agreed with T.I.'s criticism still found it questionable that Tip would air his grievance publicly rather than give his good friend a call.

“That was the most difficult thing that I’ve had to do. I got a lot of love and respect for him," Tip said about his Wayne criticism. "It was a knee jerk reaction. Because I was confronted by my kids." “One thing I will not do, I ain’t gonna let nobody sit around and bash bro,” T.I. continued. “I feel like I have that relationship with him where I can say that. I’m not gonna sit around and listen to nobody else say it. However he feel about me saying that, me and him we can deal with that when we see each other and we spek. He still a legend, he still in my eyes one of the greatest to ever do what we do. In a way I kinda did it so the people wouldn’t be able to do it. I felt like everything I said I said out of love. And I used Instagram as a forum because it was such a public matter. It wasn’t really me speaking to him as much as it is speaking to the people, the kids, that I know that’s following him. You need to correct the kids. Bro a grown rich ass man, he's going to to do what he do and feel w. You're speaking to him, but you're really speaking but you really trying to get the message to the kids who follow him.”