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http://www.accessatlanta.com/music/content/music/stories//2008/11/11/t_pain_album.html
With third album, T-Pain enjoys ringmaster role
By SONIA MURRAY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Turn on the radio and Atlanta singer-rapper T-Pain is easy to find — he’s the one who sounds like he’s having the most fun.
On his Top 5 single R&B/hip-hop single “Can’t Believe It,” featuring rapper Lil Wayne, he’s charming a woman by telling her the many places around the globe he can romance her.
On the Top 10 rap single he’s featured on by Lil Wayne, “Got Money,” he’s flinging stacks of bills like “recession” is a foreign word.
And back on Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop listing, there he is again in the Top 15 with Atlanta rapper Ludacris, hoping to sway another woman on his single “Chopped ‘N’ Skrewed.”
Little wonder then that in real life T-Pain is every bit the funny and likable guy he appears to be on record.
The 23-year-old born Faheem Najm may have taken on the stage name T-Pain (short for Tallahassee Pain) because of his rough start in his Florida hometown, but rough is hardly the adjective one would use to describe the life these days of a Grammy winner living in a $1 million Duluth home with a Lamborghini out front.
Because T-Pain is seemingly on every other single on the radio dial, expectations are high for his third solo CD in two years, “Thr33 Ringz,” in stores Tuesday. The album is titled “Thr33 Ringz” in large part because T-Pain feels like a ringleader of the music industry game.
Minus the almost ever-present top hat (he has 327), wraparound Oakley glasses and diamond-studded grill, it’s a little hard to deny him this claim. Kanye West is using T-Pain’s signature vocoder effect (a synthesizer-type sound with the tone and tempo of the singer’s voice) on his entire next album — he flew T-Pain to Hawaii for five days to make sure he was doing it right. Even Jay-Z asks for “some T-Pain” on his voice on Atlanta rapper T.I.’s hit “Swagga Like Us.” And much to T-Pain’s dismay, Chris Brown is also starting to add the style to his R&B vocals.
“That’s when I started to realize — like about a couple of months ago — I was really changing the game. When everybody started doing what I was doing,” T-Pain says in a room he’s turned into a miniclub with stripper pole, 15 plasma TVs and fog machine. “In my eyes, Chris Brown’s the best singer in the industry right now. He doesn’t need anything I’m doing.”
Not so fast. T-Pain’s assist to Brown gave him the million-selling single “Kiss Kiss.”
“T-Pain’s assists, period, makes records better,” Ludacris affirms.
“I can’t say enough about him and his talents,” adds BET Senior Vice President Stephen Hill, who asked T-Pain to host its recent Hip-Hop Awards. (He’s also appearing all this week on BET’s “106 & Park.”) “He’s funny, a nice guy and easy to work with.”
But because he is also the nasal-sounding guy who’s broken ringtone records singing about simple things like buying a drink, or being in love with a stripper, “people have been slow to give him credit for his talent,” says Jive Records Vice President MempHitz, who signed T-Pain. “But when I first heard him, he reminded me of R. Kelly — he could sing, write, produce — the works!”
It’s a gift T-Pain attributes to just genuinely loving music. An affection underlined by his children’s names — Lyriq, Muzyq and the one he and his wife have on the way, Cadence, which is sure to have a more creative spelling upon arrival.
“When I was broke, … I was still trying to figure out a way to make a mixtape or something,” says T-Pain, who now has 22 automobiles. “And, yeah, what I make, what I’ve always made, is some of the most regular [expletive] in the world. That’s why people can relate.
“Everybody is so busy concentrating on a song, trying to be different or abstract; instead of just being a basic, beautiful picture. Y’all are making it too easy for me to run this circus. But the wife and kids thank you!”
With third album, T-Pain enjoys ringmaster role
By SONIA MURRAY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Turn on the radio and Atlanta singer-rapper T-Pain is easy to find — he’s the one who sounds like he’s having the most fun.
On his Top 5 single R&B/hip-hop single “Can’t Believe It,” featuring rapper Lil Wayne, he’s charming a woman by telling her the many places around the globe he can romance her.
On the Top 10 rap single he’s featured on by Lil Wayne, “Got Money,” he’s flinging stacks of bills like “recession” is a foreign word.
And back on Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop listing, there he is again in the Top 15 with Atlanta rapper Ludacris, hoping to sway another woman on his single “Chopped ‘N’ Skrewed.”
Little wonder then that in real life T-Pain is every bit the funny and likable guy he appears to be on record.
The 23-year-old born Faheem Najm may have taken on the stage name T-Pain (short for Tallahassee Pain) because of his rough start in his Florida hometown, but rough is hardly the adjective one would use to describe the life these days of a Grammy winner living in a $1 million Duluth home with a Lamborghini out front.
Because T-Pain is seemingly on every other single on the radio dial, expectations are high for his third solo CD in two years, “Thr33 Ringz,” in stores Tuesday. The album is titled “Thr33 Ringz” in large part because T-Pain feels like a ringleader of the music industry game.
Minus the almost ever-present top hat (he has 327), wraparound Oakley glasses and diamond-studded grill, it’s a little hard to deny him this claim. Kanye West is using T-Pain’s signature vocoder effect (a synthesizer-type sound with the tone and tempo of the singer’s voice) on his entire next album — he flew T-Pain to Hawaii for five days to make sure he was doing it right. Even Jay-Z asks for “some T-Pain” on his voice on Atlanta rapper T.I.’s hit “Swagga Like Us.” And much to T-Pain’s dismay, Chris Brown is also starting to add the style to his R&B vocals.
“That’s when I started to realize — like about a couple of months ago — I was really changing the game. When everybody started doing what I was doing,” T-Pain says in a room he’s turned into a miniclub with stripper pole, 15 plasma TVs and fog machine. “In my eyes, Chris Brown’s the best singer in the industry right now. He doesn’t need anything I’m doing.”
Not so fast. T-Pain’s assist to Brown gave him the million-selling single “Kiss Kiss.”
“T-Pain’s assists, period, makes records better,” Ludacris affirms.
“I can’t say enough about him and his talents,” adds BET Senior Vice President Stephen Hill, who asked T-Pain to host its recent Hip-Hop Awards. (He’s also appearing all this week on BET’s “106 & Park.”) “He’s funny, a nice guy and easy to work with.”
But because he is also the nasal-sounding guy who’s broken ringtone records singing about simple things like buying a drink, or being in love with a stripper, “people have been slow to give him credit for his talent,” says Jive Records Vice President MempHitz, who signed T-Pain. “But when I first heard him, he reminded me of R. Kelly — he could sing, write, produce — the works!”
It’s a gift T-Pain attributes to just genuinely loving music. An affection underlined by his children’s names — Lyriq, Muzyq and the one he and his wife have on the way, Cadence, which is sure to have a more creative spelling upon arrival.
“When I was broke, … I was still trying to figure out a way to make a mixtape or something,” says T-Pain, who now has 22 automobiles. “And, yeah, what I make, what I’ve always made, is some of the most regular [expletive] in the world. That’s why people can relate.
“Everybody is so busy concentrating on a song, trying to be different or abstract; instead of just being a basic, beautiful picture. Y’all are making it too easy for me to run this circus. But the wife and kids thank you!”
