T-Pain

Fans Are Shocked To Learn Napster Is Still Around After T-Pain Shares A Dubious List Of Streaming Payouts

by
T-Pain.jpg
Getty Image

Seemingly every couple of months, Twitter lights up with (very important) conversations about how little artists actually get paid every time their song gets streamed. It varies between streaming services, but according to the RIAA’s 2020 report, Spotify averages $.00437 per stream while Apple Music averages about $.00783. However, the company that pays artists the most per stream is pretty surprising, seeing how it’s oftentimes credited for nearly killing the music industry: Napster.

Thanks to a recent tweet by T-Pain, fans were shocked to learn that Napster still actually exists seeing as the company filed for bankruptcy in 2002 after losing a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits. T-Pain shared a screenshot of a dubious chart originally posted to Reddit which claims how many times a song has to be streamed on a given platform in order for the musician to make $1. T-Pain’s chart shows an artist’s song on Napster has to be streamed 53 times in order to make $1, which is actually accurate per the RIAA’s 2020 report, compared to 315 streams on Spotify (although RIAA’s numbers show it’s more like 229 times).

While it’s fairly well-known that Spotify is one of the biggest streaming platforms with one of the worst artist payouts, fans on Twitter were even more surprised that Napster is still around. T-Pain’s tweet instantly made Napster trend on Twitter, with many people reacting to the news that Napster essentially went from “villain” to the “hero” of streaming.

Others were simply reminiscing on the times they stayed up all night downloading a few songs on Napster.

Best Hip-Hop Songs of 2021

by
A year full of rising rap newcomers and seasoned vets that delivered a solid soundtrack over the last 12 months. Continue reading…

T-Pain And Usher Reunite Onstage To Make Up Over Their Decade-Long Autotune Dustup

by
t-pain usher reconcile
Getty Image

HipHopDX reports that the longstanding discord between R&B/pop stars T-Pain and Usher finally came to an end last night in Atlanta as the two singers met onstage at a concert afterparty for Dave Chappelle’s documentary premiere event. After the initial film and comedy set, the show reportedly consisted of sets from the likes of local legends such as 2 Chainz, 21 Savage, Jeezy, Monica, and more.

Although phones weren’t allowed inside the venue, a video of Pain and Usher reconciling still found its way online, giving a glimpse into their reunion. T-Pain told Usher, “I love you, bro. I’m telling you, we ain’t going through nothing, bro. We ain’t going through a god damn thing. It’s all love. In a time when we’re divided the most, we need to be together the most. I love you, bro. I’m never not gonna love you, bro, trust me.”

While there was likely never any real ill will between the two artists, Pain’s comments on Netflix’s This Is Pop docuseries could have lent the impression that he held a grudge after he admitted a chance encounter between the two sent him into a deep depression. “[Usher] was like, ‘Yeah man you really f*cked up music for real singers,’” he recalled. Meanwhile, Usher claimed that the encounter never happened in Billboard, prompting T-Pain to tell Power 105’s Angie Martinez that he’d reached out to Usher to settle the dispute.

“I hit Usher after the interview came out, and I’m like, ‘I’m sure you saw what happened,’” he said. “‘That was the truth. That’s what happened, you definitely said that.’ I remember that whole day. Then all he texted me back was, ‘Let’s not text, let’s talk.’ And I was like, ‘Cool, hit me up.’ And I never heard from him, he never called me. I feel like I initiated the contact.”

It appears that the two were able to make good on Usher’s suggestion and turn the page on that particular chapter of both their lives.

Twitch Announces A Streaming Partnership With T-Pain With ‘I’m Cool With That’

by
t-pain.jpg
Getty Image

T-Pain was on Twitch well before it was cool. While Twitch had been in use for years among video game fans, it was not a place that celebrities typically hung out like it is now. These days it’s not uncommon for famous athletes, actors, or musicians to be seen hanging out on Twitch playing a game and interacting with their community. T-Pain, on the other hand, was doing it originally as just something to do in his free time. He’d play games, show off new music, and just hang out.

These days, Twitch is almost as much of a job as his music career for him. He’s an extremely popular streamer with thousands of people tuning into his streams live or watching the VODs after he’s wrapped up. Twitch saw his popularity and got in contact with him. Now, T-Pain and Twitch have formed a partnership where his presence on the site will be even more visible. He’s kicking off his partnership with an exclusive listening party on his Twitch channel for his new single “I’m Cool With That.”

“This partnership means that I have been seen,” T-Pain said. “With so little representation on the service previously, the fact that Twitch came to me means that they actually see our community and understand the value of our contribution to the streaming world. We’ve been hosting beat battles and collaborative sessions for years… ‘I’m Cool With That’ is a combination of some of those efforts and was the first song created and released with my community, and I hope this is just the start of a journey Twitch and I are about to go on to uplift and strengthen the music community on Twitch.”

The upcoming listening party will be where T-Pain further breaks down the new track and shares details about other aspects of his partnership, such as monthly “Post Ya Song” and “Post Ya Beat” reviews from community producers. It’s really cool to see this kind of opportunity for T-Pain considering that he was one of the first well-known names to really embrace Twitch. Now he has a partnership and his community gets to watch his streams become even bigger.

This is another big step for Twitch as well, as the platform continues to try and show it’s for more than just video games. Twitch will always be about video games first and foremost, but the platform has not shied away from growing to become something even bigger. Lucky for them, T-Pain not only represents the video game side of the platform but the music side as well. He’s the perfect choice for this partnership.

We Asked Twitter What the Most Misheard Hip-Hop Lyrics Are

by
Music is subjective in many ways. From a fan’s opinion about an artist and the songs they create to what the lyrics mean, there are different perspectives used in interpreting that music, especially within hip-hop. As the genre expands and evolves to create a more widespread impact, sometimes the rhymes gets lost in translation when listeners mishear lyrics. This happens often… Continue reading…

New Music Friday: Wale, Meek Mill, Polo G, and More!

by

Meek Mill

Heavy hitters in the game Meek Mill and Booka600 drop solo albums today while Lil Wayne and Rich the Kid dropped a joint album. Plus, more from Roddy Rich, Polo G, and Yo Gotti. New Music Friday This Friday, the streets are getting major drops for what we can expect will be a chart-topping week […]

T-Pain And Kehlani Recruit BIA For An Additional Dose Of Confident Flavor On Their ‘I Like Dat’ Remix

by

After pushing through his Instagram DM debacle earlier this year, T-Pain got to work in fulfilling requests from artists to collaborate, all of which he missed out on over the past couple of years. Furthermore, the singer called on some acts to work with him, one of them being Kehlani. Earlier this year the two united for “I Like Dat” and it’s a record that’s grown to be one of the more popular releases from the past few months. The duo now looks to give it an extra boost by calling on rising rapper BIA to remix the song.

The remix to “I Like Dat” is BIA’s latest spotlight in 2021 and for this occasion, the Massachusetts-bred rapper shows out. The remix comes after she teamed up with G Herbo for “Besito,” a track that’s set to appear on the upcoming deluxe reissue of her debut project, For Certain, which she released last year. “I Like Dat” is not the only song that BIA has remixed this year. Back in July, she teamed up with Nicki Minaj for a fresh version of her viral hit song, “Whole Lotta Money.” The remix came equipped with new verses from the rappers, with both of them briefly rapping back and forth at one point.

You can vibe out to the new remix in the video above.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

T-Pain Claims Kanye West Called One Of His Lines ‘Corny’ And Proceeded To Steal It For His Own Song

by
Getty Image

A lot of ink has been spilled about Kanye West recently, and with good reason: He finally, after multiple false starts, released Donda, producing yet another, very Kanye avalanche of news stories. So here’s another: T-Pain has a story about the artist doing something eccentric (surprise surprise).

“Let me talk about a time that one of my corny lines got stolen,” T-Pain said during the livestream. “I’m so prepared for this, and I love this. Bro, Kanye stole one of my corny lines. I couldn’t believe it. Kanye stole one of my corny lines after he told me it was corny. I don’t think he said it better. I don’t think anything happened that his was better than mine.” He added, “It was either Prevolver — it was one of the Pre mixtapes before I released it. And on one of the songs I said, ‘I got beef like two burgers, you n****s win slow and I’m smarter than Steve Urkel.’ Now, keep in mind the Winslow family, right. Corny as f*ck. I knew it was corny when I said it.”

T-Pain went on to say that Kanye’s feelings about the Urkel line were similar to his own. “Kanye confirmed it,” he said. “He was like, ‘Don’t ever say anything like that.’ Then after that, one of his bars was, ‘Too many Urkels on your team, that’s why your wins low.’ The singer, shocked at what he heard in Kanye’s song (“Dark Fantasy” from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy) added, “I was like, ‘Did this n**** try to get me to not say my sh*t so he could say it?’ … I was like, ‘Bro, that’s my bar.’ He looked at me and he was literally bobbing his head, grabbing his chin, and when I said that line he looked at me and said, ‘Don’t say that.’”

All in all, the incident served as a lesson for T-Pain to be confident in his work, no matter how “corny” it may sound. “So this is why I say corny lines ’cause in my heart, I know they’re corny,” he said. But if the right person says it, it’s not corny anymore apparently. When a n**** getting lifted to the f*cking ceiling like a God with a light shining down on him, and y’all n****s is paying $50 for f*cking chicken fingers to listen to a f*cking unfinished album. Twice.”

You can watch T-pain detail the full story in the video above.