Rapper T.I. has defended his decision to carry illegal weapons, claiming he has feared assassination since the shooting death of his assistant two years ago.
The star - real name Clifford Harris Jr. - is facing a one-year prison sentence and 1,000 hours of community service after pleading guilty to illegal possession of three machine guns and two silencers following his 2007 arrest.
But he insists he was motivated by the paranoia he has suffered since Philant Johnson was gunned down in May 2006 - while he looked on helplessly.
He tells Giant magazine, "I got paranoid. Let me try to explain. Someone pulls up to your car and - pop, pop, pop.
"If you were without weapons at the time, you would probably want to be with weapons for every other time."