T-Pain’s recent Drink Champs interview is the gift that keeps on giving, largely due to his charisma, jovial nature, and propensity for self-depreciation — not to mention a brief dash of brutal honesty. Yet behind all the humor that tends to arise during a T-Pain interview, there’s also interesting insight to be found, especially when the Rapper-Ternt-Sanger reflects on his own musical legacy.
A clip from his Drink Champs chat with N.O.R.E and DJ EFN has been making the rounds, in which T-Pain is asked about the outcome of a potential Verzuz battle with Future. “To the public, Future would win,” admits Pain, after a moment of consideration. “Absolutely. Because it’s right now.”
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“We don’t have the same records,” he continues. “What’s the feel-good records — what would Future play after ‘Bartender?’ What would he play after ‘I’m Sprung?’ Cause we gotta match records. When you play records, you gotta match records. If I play ‘If I Could Change The World’ with me, Diddy, Mary J. Blige, and Akon, what’s Future going to play after that? We in two different categories.”
He also opens up about his previous “problems” with Future, confirming that the whole situation was blown out of proportion. “My problem with Future was never a problem,” explains T-Pain. “It was Khaled’s problem. When they put out ‘I Woke Up In A New Bugatti,’ they had posted my Bugatti in their shit. You know what it was like? When your homeboy got a Tinder date in the apartment, and your homeboy got on your shirt that you use for Tinder Dates.”
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“If you going on a date, and you ask your homeboy if you can borrow his shirt,” continues Pain, taking his analogy to the next level. “And your homeboy shows up to the date and says ‘nice shirt, looks real fuckin’ familiar.’ That’s how the whole Future beef started. Everybody thinks it was this big thing, that we fought or something. But it was literally — [he] sat in my Bugatti. In my Bugatti. And then you said it was yours. And I told people it wasn’t yours, and that was the end of it.”
“He didn’t get mad,” laughs Pain. “Future never gets mad…He ignored the whole shit.” T-Pain explains that he made somewhat of a scene, upset that his Bugatti ownership wasn’t given due credit. The outburst led DJ Khaled to intervene, who managed to make Pain see the error of his ways. “I was the worst friend of all time,” he muses. “Khaled was like ‘take it back, take the post down.'” He pauses for a moment. “I still stand by what I said.”
For much more from T-Pain, check out his full interview on Drink Champs below.
WATCH: T-Pain On Drink Champs