TI’s Road to Redemption is a good show but let’s face it, even though it’s  great to see a rapper stepping up to make a positive change in troubled youth’s lives, it was starting to get a little redundant. Last night, viewers were treated with two episodes where things were switched up a bit.

First, we met 15-year-old Cynthia, the first girl in the series who was struggling after witnessing her gang-banger brother get shot and killed. She joined a gang at age 13, planning to take revenge for her brother’s death. Revenge eventually stopped being a pressing issue for Cynthia, but that didn’t keep her from continuing with her gang activity, much to her mother’s chagrin.

T.I. stepped in and took Cynthia to Homeboy Industries, a refuge for ex-gang members in Los Angeles. Three women talked to Cynthia hoping to convince her to get out of the game, but she didn’t really grasp the severity of the situation until she met ex-gang member Alex.

To help Cynthia get inspired about changing her life, T.I. brought her to a photo shoot which gave her a taste of what it was like to be a photographer. In the end, Cynthia promised that she would turn her life around. As a reward, T.I. got her a new computer and a digital camera to help keep her motivated to pursue her photography dreams.

In the next episode, there was no gang-banger. Donald was just a good kid who had a rough life. Despite struggling and bouncing around to different group homes for years, the 18-year-old straight-A student has always remained positive. T.I. respected Donald for staying focused on school and doing the right thing so he decided to “treat him like a king” for a day. Donald got a haircut from a celebrity barber and scored some new clothes from TI’s line, Akoo. The pair ended up at dinner after a long day, where T.I. explained his legal situation to Donald urging him to continue traveling the right path. The icing on the cake came when Donald got to record a song with music producer, Plow Da Don, and took a copy of his music home to share with his family.

It was nice to see a change of pace. I’m glad that a positive child finally got a chance to be rewarded, and it’s good that people get to see that more and more young women are turning to crime at alarming rates. I wish there was more diversity on that show in that aspect. But overall, good job TI. Next week’s episode focuses more on T.I. preparing to serve his sentence, and how his family is coping with the situation. Going to prison is a serious no matter how long the sentence, but T.I. definitely lucked out by only getting a year, which I don’t think he’ll serve in its entirety. Either way, good luck TI, and keep that same positive attitude you’ve been showing the youth.