He’s known as one of the happiest, feel-good artists in the industry who only wants to put a smile on people’s faces, so it came as a shock to T-Pain’s fans when he revealed he fell into a depression because of something Usher said to him. We previously reported on a clip of Netflix’s This is Pop where T-Pain detailed a story that allegedly occurred back in 2013 as he was on a flight to the BET Awards. Usher was also among the guests and the singer shared that a flight attendant woke him up to tell him that Usher wanted to speak to him.
What became of the conversation, said T-Pain, was his fellow hitmaking artist telling him that his use of auto-tune “f*cked up music” for “real singers.” T-Pain then questioned if he really messed up the music industry. “I didn’t understand. Usher was my friend… Did I f*ck up music? And that is the very moment—and I don’t think I realized this for a long time—that’s the very moment that started a four-year depression for me.”
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Reactions to this clip were swift, especially from other music industry professionals who came forward on social media to sing T-Pain’s praises. They remarked how talented he is and how he didn’t ruin anything but changed the game. Some people remarked that it seemed odd that Usher would make such a comment to T-Pain only to return with his auto-tune-heavy hit single, “OMG.”
It’s obvious that T-Pain is loved in the industry and fans know that even without auto-tune, the man has pipes. Meanwhile, the public is demanding that Usher issues an apology to T-Pain and he’s being dragged until it happens. Check it out below.