There was a time when T-Pain was consistently ridiculed for his use of auto-tune. The artist’s music has transcended genres as he’s drifted through Rap, Hip Hop, Pop, and more, and while many of his singles topped the charts and are considered classics today, T-Pain faced an onslaught of backlash over his sound. Now, you can’t listen to a Rap playlist without being confronted with track after track where an artist is utilizing auto-tune to its fullest degree, and T-Pain believes he’s influenced the culture.
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T-Pain caught up with Black Girl Nerds and said that he’s not bothered by the “jokes and comments” about his use of auto-tune because it’s been replicated in today’s music. “The way that it’s spread and the way that everybody’s using it now, that lets me know I’ve been doing the right thing from the beginning, ’cause if I wasn’t doing the right thing, nobody else would have done it. Why would you copy something that’s bad? I know I’ve been doing the right thing from the jump.”
He was asked if he believes that he was an influence for people to use auto-tune and T-Pain answered, “Absolutely.” He added, “It hasn’t gone anywhere. It hasn’t been any different. And the fact that people are—even newer artists are still using it and people are coming into it and still using it. I knew I was doing the right thing. I needed everybody else to catch on.”
The music icon also spoke about his Verzuz with Lil Jon and said that after it was over, his phone wouldn’t stop ringing off the hook. Check out T-Pain’s full interview with Black Girl Nerds below and revisit his classic hit “Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” featuring Yung Joc.
Also, make sure to check out our feature: Auto-Tune In Hip-Hop: A Brief History From T-Pain To Future.