Rapper T.I. insists he'd still be a free man, not looking at a year behind bars, if he had trusted his instincts during a gun deal that went bad.

The hit-maker was caught in possession of illegal firearms and marijuana last October after entering into a dodgy car park exchange with weapons dealers who turned out to be undercover federal agents conducting a sting operation.

T.I. - who spent the end of last year, Christmas and the New Year under house arrest in Georgia, awaiting trial - was set up by a bodyguard, who had been arrested four days before. And now the star, real name Clifford Harris Jr., regrets not walking away from the deal when he started thinking something was wrong.

He tells Rolling Stone magazine, "I had a feeling in the back of my mind that something wasn't right. They (dealers) weren't talking right. But I thought I was above situations like that. I was on some, 'Nah, that can't happen to me' s**t."

And despite the charges against him, which landed T.I. with 1,000 hours of community service and a pending year-long jail sentence, the rapper insists he was building up an illegal weapons arsenal for personal protection following the death of his best friend Philant Johnson, who was shot to death outside a Cincinnati club in 2006.

He adds, "After my partner died, I kinda had a 'take matters into my own hands' mentality. It provided a certain sense of paranoia. When you're paranoid, and you've already been through certain things, your judgment tends to be jaded."

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(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)