T-Pain announces "D.O.A." and Introduces the "T-Pain Effect"

By The Music Scoop
JR Staff Writer

By 2008, T-Pain had become one of the top figures in hip hop and R&B. He was featured on songs with all of the top artists in the game. The trademark sound from T-Pain was the auto-tune. Having not been used since the days of Teddy Riley, people credited T-Pain with bringing it back.

However, at the peak of his career, T-Pain decided to take a short break from the game. During this time, Jay-Z decided to return to the game. Only away for two years, Jay-Z watched as the auto-tune had taken over the rap game. This inspired him to record "Death of Auto-tune."

"Death of Auto-tune" stopped T-Pain from recording his album and led to him dissing Jay-Z. The two had a short feud before reconciling. T-Pain decided to take additional time off in order to focus on his comeback. Last summer, he recorded the hook of DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win" and he was featured on his recent hit, "Welcome to my Hood."

Now, T-Pain is preparing his fourth album, RevolveR, which will be released later this year. This album will feature the debut of his new movement, "The T-Pain Effect." T-Pain realized he could not rely on one thing over his entire career, so he is expanding his horizions.

"There's so much different stuff on [RevolveR],” said T-Pain. “I almost confused myself on what I wanted to do because I've gotten such a completely different audience from...the Taylor Swift stuff and the Bud Light commercial and Toshiba...I've just gotten so many other people and so many different audiences. I had to make different kinds of music for everybody but still keep it classic T-Pain at the same time. That got kind of confusing and hard, but it all worked out."

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T-Pain explains ditching Auto-tune

By The Music Scoop
JR Staff Writer

In 2005, T-Pain ushered in a new era in hip hop. At the time, hip hop needed something new. Jay-Z was retired and no rapper had truly stepped up. There were several new artists, but none really stood out among the rest.

But, late in the summer of 2005, T-Pain debuted his single, "I'm Sprung." The song quickly became a hit, thanks to his use of the auto-tune. It was not long before T-Pain was using the auto-tune on his hooks with other artists.

By 2007, T-Pain had risen the ranks and was recording with R. Kelly. On their collaborations, Kelly also used the auto-tune. On the mixtape level, Lil Wayne had taken over the rap game. In 2008, he released his comeback album, Tha Carter III, which featured Wayne's first chart-topper, "Lollipop," which only used the auto-tune.

Soon, everyone from Kanye West to Young Jeezy was using auto-tune. The machine had invaded every rap song on the radio. Throughout 2008, there were rumors of Jay-Z coming out with a new album, which he would name The Blueprint 3. When the album did not come, fans assumed the album was nothing more than a rumor. However, when the album came, it was led by Jay-Z's "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-tune)" single. The song was released as T-Pain prepared to release his new album.

Out of frustration, T-Pain dissed Jay-Z, but soon apologized. With his popularity drained, T-Pain decided to take time off. T-Pain came out of his hiatus for the DJ Khaled single, "All I Do is Win." However, T-Pain did not begin his more formal comeback until he performed the hook on DJ Khaled's 2011 single, "Welcome to my Hood." Now, T-Pain is preparing to release his fourth studio album and he announced the album would not feature auto-tune.

Now a six-year veteran in the game, T-Pain wants to do something different. Him ditching the auto-tune is not out of fear of a 2008 repeat. Instead, T-Pain is hoping to prove he can sing without the help of the machine and he is trying to evolve his sound. Each day, T-Pain is in the studio trying to make this happen.

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T-Pain gets Facebook-inspired Tattoo

By Mr. Hollywood
JR Staff Writer

In 2007, T-Pain released his second album and became a fixture in the game. His run continued when he released his third album in 2008 and inspired the rap game. Due to his success with the auto-tune, many rappers began using it, most notably Lil Wayne and Kanye West.

Jay-Z, who was recording while T-Pain was dominating, was watching the change take place. While he was a fan of T-Pain, Jay-Z felt rappers had taken auto-tune too far. He returned in 2009 with "D.O.A." and ruined T-Pain's career. After admitting this, T-Pain dissed Jay-Z in Las Vegas.

Their issue was quickly resolved and Jay-Z was voted 'Rap Artist of the Year' for 2009. Meanwhile, T-Pain was quickly becoming a memory. Last year, he had a little success with his part in DJ Khaled's hit, "All I Do is Win." The song was a major hit during the summer of 2010, but it did little to boost his solo career.

T-Pain is determined to regain his crown in 2011 and he is working on new music. Having been away for three years, he knows he has to come outside of the box. The first move from T-Pain was not even musical, instead it was a tattoo. Due to all the negative publicity he receives, he got a tattoo of the Facebook 'like' symbol, saying "You Don't Have to Like Me."

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T-Pain talks Album Delay

After releasing albums in 2007 and 2008, T-Pain had every intention of releasing another album in 2009. Many people credit T-Pain for being the man to bring auto-tune back to black music. Towards the end of 2008 and into early 2009, everybody was using the auto-tune. For some people, such as Lil Wayne, it worked, but for others, such as 50 Cent, it failed miserably.

Looming in the background the entire time was Jay-Z. He was working on his eleventh studio album, but he wanted to come back with a bang. With the auto-tune as his angle, Jay-Z was back. Right as T-Pain was preparing the first single from his album, "Death of Auto-tune" was released to radio. The song became a hit and all of the auto-tune songs vanished from the radio.

In the song, Jay-Z makes it clear he is not going at T-Pain. To further that point, he even shouts him out. Still, in September 2009, T-Pain grows angry at Jay-Z and called him out. A short feud transpired between the two before they finally ended their differences back in January. T-Pain did admit he lost a lot of material for his album because of "D.O.A." Even after everything with the auto-tune issue, T-Pain decided to take his music in a different direction.

For this new album, Revolver, T-Pain said he is retiring the hat, his attire, and the auto-tune. He is going to do a straight up R&B album. Early in March, T-Pain talked as if his album would come out towards the end of April. However, as the middle of May has approached, T-Pain has yet to release a new single, let alone a new album. Seeing how he failed to keep his streak alive, Pain finds himself in no rush to release his next album. Three years ago, he could sell records in his sleep, but his new style and his time away from the game puts him on the same boat as everybody else.

T-Pain said the only way for him to sell the records he used to sell would be to change his name to Susan Boyle. He said he should join "American Idol" to sell some records because people like that are the only people selling records. There is currently no set release date for his album and he does not have any timeframe of when the album will be released. However, he is doing all he can to make sure the album will be a success when it is released.

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T-Pain and Jay-Z make truce Official

Following the massive Jay-Z comeback single, "Death of Auto-tune," T-Pain found himself without a career. He had built his career off of using the instrument and many other artists had followed suit. In actuality, Jay-Z had recorded an all auto-tune album, but he scrapped it.

Upon his official return, Jay-Z declared the death of auto-tune. Before the release of his single, the game was dominated by the machine. While he declared the machine dead, he said that this did no pertain to the likes of T-Pain. They would even take a stage together.

Despite everything appearing to be great between the two artists, T-Pain would diss Jay-Z at a concert event in Las Vegas. Just when it appeared that he had no issues, he went on a "f*ck Jay-Z rant." Following his outburst, Jay-Z went on the defense. He said that he made it clear that he was not dissing T-Pain. For a little while, Fabolous was even drawn into the feud. But, T-Pain and Fabolous would quickly end their feud. Jay-Z was not as forgiving. He said that he would not respond to Pain, but they were far from cool. However, a recent meeting between the two has led to an official end to their feud.

While T-Pain said that he would love to work with Jay-Z, it will not be happening on his newest album. In the past, he has loaded his albums up with guest features. But, for this album, T-Pain is trying to keep the guest appearances, and the auto-tune, to a minimum.

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