T-Pain ruled the charts in the mid-2000s. His use of Auto-Tune, which gave his voice a futuristic, robotic sound, made his songs instantly recognizable and gave way to a trend that spanned pop, R&B, and hip-hop. He wasn't the first person to use the software — he originally got the idea to brand himself with auto-tune after noticing it on a Jennifer Lopez remix — but he became the face of the style and was considered an innovator. He rode the auto-tune trend until around 2010, when people started to mock the art.
The very thing that brought him fame became his downfall. "People felt like I was using it to sound good," he said in an upcoming interview on NPR's All Things Considered. "But I was just using it to sound different."
The hate he was receiving from everyone from Kanye West to Christina Aguilera lead him to drinking and depression.
"Around the time when people were hating on me about Auto-Tune, I was drinking as much as I could to get away from my problems, crying to myself," he told Vibe. "I've almost lost fingers from punching glass and pictures. I turned into a raging alcoholic."
He's now gotten through that sadness and isn't worrying as much what other people think of his talents.
In a recent Tiny Desk Concert for NPR, he shows off his ability to sing without auto-tune, and it's pretty impressive. In the 13-minute video, the 30-year-old singer performs some of his greatest hits including "Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin')," "Up Down (Do This All Day)," and "Drankin' Patna."
"This is weird as hell for me," he said before his stripped-down performance. "Never done anything like this."
If the stripped-down T-Pain isn't for you, he'll be dropping a greatest hits album next week. He also has a new album called Stoicville: The Phoenix in the works. The inspiration behind the album was his son.
"Stoicville is a city in my mind that I created. It's basically like my happy place," he told Fuse. "I created it after I found out that my son is autistic. When [autistic people] get frustrated, they cover their ears and close their eyes, and they go to this place. I figured that maybe I need to try that-I get frustrated a lot."
Check out his stripped-down performance below, and let us know what you think in the comments section!
