If you haven’t already heard, T-Pain is making an appearance at Hanner Fieldhouse on April 15.  In preparation for the concert, here is everything you need to know about award-winning rapper, T-Pain.  

Who is T-Pain?

Born in 1984, Faheem Rasheed Najm (or T-Pain) is an American rapper, songwriter, singer and record producer. He currently has six studio albums, 21 singles and 19 music videos. His use of auto-tune in songs popularized a new style of rap. The rapper currently has five headlining platinum singles. 

Starting a career

Most know T-Pain for his popular songs “Buy U a Drank”, “Bartender”, “I’m Sprung” and “Up Down (Do This All Day)”. His career began in 2005 when he released his first album “Rappa Ternt Sanga”, which hit #33 on the Billboard 200. 

While working on his second album, T-Pain made guest appearances in popular songs like “Low” by Flo Rida and “Good Life” by Kanye West. In 2010, he won a Grammy for best rap song for “Good Life”. His second Grammy was awarded in 2010 for best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocals. 

Auto-tune?

Auto-tune is a huge part of T-Pain’s musical style. T-Pain only began using auto-tune on his second album, as a way to set himself apart in a competitive industry. The rapper’s inspiration for autotune came from Jennifer Lopez’s “If You Had My Love”. 

He was one of the first rappers to use it in his music and it was quickly popularized amongst other rappers like Snoop Dog, Lil Wayne and Kanye West. However, some rappers criticized T-Pain’s use of auto-tune. In 2009, Jay-Z publicly criticized T-Pain by releasing his single “D.O.A” (Death of Auto-Tune). 

Most recently… 

T-Pain dropped his latest album (“1UP”) in 2019 after winning the first season of “The Masked Singer”. His success in “The Masked Singer” showed his critics that he doesn’t need auto-tune to sing. T-Pain’s appearance on this hit show showed a different side to his talents. 

Soon after his win on the show, he hosted the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards. T-Pain also stays active on Twitch and has been streaming music and games since 2016. He has over 800,000 followers on the streaming platform and enjoys engaging with his fans during streams. 

He mainly streams first-person shooter games and creates royalty free music beats during his broadcasts. Fans enjoy his positive attitude and the combination of gaming and music in his streams.