AceShowbiz - T.I. has backed protests against police forces across the U.S. as a form of "self-defense."

Amid the Black Lives Matter movement, campaigners have taken to the streets to call for an end to police brutality and systematic racism within the organization - calls which rapper T.I. insists are justified.

He tells Message on Apple Music, "Any human beings, any living species if backed up into a corner is going to eventually respond with self-defense. You can't stop that. That's God given. It's universal law."

"So if you continue to antagonize, you continue to poke and push," he explains, "Eventually you're going to be some poking and pushing back."

The star, real name Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr., adds N.W.A's hit "F**k the Police" was "an alarm" to the injustices taking place within police departments across the U.S.

"A lot of people, when they speak about 'F*ck the Police', they act like it started right there," says the hitmaker. "No, you did a bunch of s**t before that led to someone saying f**k you."

"This wasn't a battle cry. This was kind of like, I guess the commercial, like letting you know, hey, this is going on. This was like an alarm that was running like, hey man, y'all see this? Y'all noticed it happening? Y'all cool with this?"

Amid the civil unrest, T.I. is hopeful for change, however, and has issued a call for unity among fans worldwide. He shares, "I think of all the things that plague our communities, man, sticking together will solve 99 per cent of it. I think the message has always been liberation."

"Just providing the info that could lead people to the understanding that, hey, look, we're going to have to come together if we're going to overrun this."