Shawty Lo has blamed T.I.'s inability to "contain his people" for the scuffle that forced police to shut down the Dirty Awards in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday.

The fourth annual hip-hop prizegiving had to be halted by authorities after fights erupted between the two stars' entourages.

The trouble began when Shawty Lo took to the stage to perform Don't I - his version of Ain't I, a track originally recorded by T.I.'s artist Yung L.A., which takes shots at T.I.'s Grand Hustle crew.

But the D4L rapper insists he didn't instigate the violence - and claims it was Live Your Life hitmaker T.I.'s fault for not doing enough to prevent the fights.

He tells MTV, "I didn't go and start nothing. If they rewind the cameras, they'll see how it started. I'm a man. I respect every man as a man. If a man disrespects me, what am I supposed to do? T.I. needs to contain his people.

“We're not standing down. I performed my music; ...I didn't come to start no beef with him..

"Basically, I didn't start saying anything about Tip (T.I.). I was performing my music. During 'Foolish', all of them was coming in front of the stage doing their mugging.

“After 'Dunn, Dunn', I performed the diss record 'Don't I'. That's what made me perform the diss record. I ain't gonna lie; they was disrespecting me. I wasn't gonna let them disrespect me."