Playlouder - Music is the Network

Shawty Lo has been quick to run to the press to give his side of the story regarding the fisticuffs between his and T.I.'s respective crews at Dirty Awards in Atlanta the other night.

“I didn’t go and start nothing," said a defensive Shawty. "If they rewind the cameras, they’ll see how it started,” Lo told MTV. “I’m a man. I respect every man as a man. If a man disrespects me, what am I supposed to do? T.I. needs to contain his people. We’re not standing down. I performed my music; 107.9 [one of the show's organizers] called me to perform. I didn’t come to start no beef with him. I gave Tip a shout out at the BET [Hip-Hop] Awards.”

Lo claims T.I.'s crew were to blame, for standing at the front of the stage making faces at him while he was "performing".

“Basically, I didn’t start saying anything about Tip,” Lo explained. “I was performing my music. During ‘Foolish,’ all of them was coming in front of the stage doing their mugging. After ‘Dunn, Dunn,’ I performed the dis record ‘Don’t I.’ That’s what made me perform the diss record. I ain’t gonna lie; they was disrespecting me. I wasn’t gonna let them disrespect me.”

Apparently, Lo and T.I. met backstage afterwards, where Tip suggested the pair forget their greivances and make nice.

“He told me the beef was over with,” Lo told MTV. “I said, ‘If the beef was let go, me and you have to publicize it. We have to do it together.’ He agreed to do that, and we shook hands in the back room.”

however, T.I. then went onstage to accept an award, saying, "if somebody’s got a problem with me, do something better than me,” then performed his Shawty Lo diss “Ain’t I”. And so did happen a fight.

“[We] ended on a positive note with the conversation,” said Lo. “I don’t know where he is [with the beef]. I guess he just be talking. One thing about it, Shawty Lo ain’t no punk. T.I. is just a rapper. He knows how to read a book good. Where I live is for real. I ain’t got nothing against homes. He’s got family, I got family. I’m not trying to kill him, he’s not trying to kill me. I got fans that love me. He’s not not gonna run all over me. I ain’t Lil’ Flip.”