The artist with the No. 1 album in the country is going to prison in a few months.

Billboard confirmed Wednesday that rapper T.I., scheduled in a few months to begin serving a one-year prison term for gun possession, has scored his third straight chart-topper. The Atlanta rapper’s sixth album, “Paper Trail” (Grand Hustle/Atlantic), sold 568,000 copies in the last week. He also has the nation’s No. 1 single, “Live Your Life.”

It’s the latest high in a year, and a career, that has also seen plenty of lows. T.I., born Clifford Harris Jr. 28 years ago in Atlanta, was a drug dealer who transformed himself into a best-selling rapper and movie star. But a personal assistant was shot to death in a 2006 gunfight and last year T.I. was arrested for buying machine guns and silencers. After paying a $100,000 fine and doing community service, he will begin serving a one-year term in 2009.

All of which has been prime fodder for his career as one of the best-selling rappers ever to emerge from Atlanta and the “Dirty South” of ghetto misadventure. Much of “Paper Trail” was recorded under unique circumstances: while its maker was under house arrest awaiting trial.

With its cocky, drawling celebrations of his prowess as an indestructible anti-hero, “Paper Trail” is a far more commercial work than his more introspective 2007 release, “T.I. vs. T.I.P.” But it also addresses --- and admittedly exploits --- his real-life legal troubles.

READ FULL STORY AT www.leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2008