These are photos of T.I. at Reagan airport in Washington D.C. last week. Our photo agencies, taking note of his neon hat and shoes, called him a double-sided highlighter. T.I. performed some gigs and paused to speak with the Washington Post. He continued his trend of defending Iggy Azalea against cultural appropriation claims. T.I. said, “I think Iggy will be just fine, man. She just feels like she needs to answer to everybody and everything and have a rebuttal. I think the success shall speak for itself.” Point taken on rebuttals. Iggy dismisses her critics and thinks people pick on her because she’s female. Iggy has amassed four Grammy nods, which could be considered “success,” but only time will tell if she possesses staying power.

Iggy spoke with the February issue of GQ (the one with Pharrell on the cover). At the age of 24, Iggy talks about her career, goals, legacy, and how she wants to be performing at the wise old age of 35:

Her goals: “I try not to have too many different goals, because then if they don’t happen, you can be disappointed. You might overlook the fact that you might still be having a great life. I just set immediate goals for myself; the only thing I’m thinking about at the moment is having a great second album and doing a great job on my tour that I have coming up, because it’s my first arena tour. And I’d like it to not be my last arena tour.”

Her future legacy: “You never know how long you’ll be in people’s good graces, especially in this business. So I hope it’s long–but I could be here for three or four years and then be out, like most artists. So it depends. I might be here for a long time. At the very worst, if I have a short-lived career, at least I could say I sparked a change–that I inspired some leniency in what people accept in hip-hop. And if I have a very long career and can be gyrating in a leotard at 35, that would be great.”

How she handles harsh criticism: “Uh, awards season helps. Anytime where people get to choose who they want to have a voice and they choose me, I just think that makes it worth it. And that gives me the patience to just bite my tongue. When people choose me as the person they think should be speaking for them, I think, Well, I don’t really care what someone in the industry or another artist has to say about it. Your opinion is biased anyway, because you want people to listen to your voice. So having actual people who choose me, it makes me think, I have a place, and I don’t care what other people have to say about it. I was a fan of rap music growing up, and I didn’t feel like there were enough characters that represented me and my situation. So I think it’s needed.”

[From GQ]

Iggy believes she “sparked a change” in the hip-hop industry? I guess she’s not entirely wrong because her teenage fans see Iggy as a real rapper. Long-term fans of hip hop feel much differently. She’ll always have her critics and her vocal supporters. Charlamagne is the latest to step up in Iggy’s defense. He believes “Ninety per-cent of hip hop is fabrication and illusion … why is Iggy the poster child? We let all of this fake s*** go on in hip hop all the time, and all of a sudden Iggy Azalea is the punching bag?”

Oh, and Iggy’s dealing with rumors (and sketchy photos) of Nick Young cheating with Lakers groupies. That story’s percolated for about a week, but she and Nick haven’t broken up. Yet. Nick tweeted, “Now I gotta sleep on the couch with one eye open because ppl wanna put out crazy stuff.” He may have been joking, who knows.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN