Image caption TI is due in court on Friday for a parole hearing

US rapper TI helped to talk a suicidal man down from the top of a 22-storey building in Atlanta, Georgia.

Police say TI joined an assembled crowd of people below the skyscraper before asking officers if he could help.

The man agreed to come down in exchange for a few minutes with the rapper, police said.

"I told him it ain't that bad. It'll get better, to put the time and effort into making it better," said TI, whose real name is Clifford Harris.

It looks bad right now but it can turn around Rapper TI's advice to the man

He told the Associated Press news agency the man seemed "beat up by life".

"I just reminded him, know that I know. It looks bad right now but it can turn around."

TI said he drove to the building after hearing about the incident on the radio.

The musician recorded a video of himself on a mobile phone which was shown to the man to prove that he was really there.

The man, who has not been named, was later taken to hospital.

TI is due in court on Friday for a parole hearing after he was arrested last month on suspicion of possessing ecstasy.

He is on probation following his release from prison in December after serving several months for possessing illegal weapons.