Artist
T-Pain
Tallahassee, US
hip hop · pop · contemporary r&b · electropop
T-Pain (born Faheem Rasheed Najm on September 30, 1985, in Tallahassee, Florida) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer widely credited with popularizing the use of Auto-Tune as a signature vocal effect in mainstream hip hop and R&B during the mid-2000s. His stage name is short for "Tallahassee Pain," a reference to the hardships he faced growing up. After beginning his career with the hip-hop group Nappy Headz and self-releasing his mixtape Back @ It (2004), he signed with Akon's Konvict Muzik in a joint venture with Jive Records. His debut album Rappa Ternt Sanga (2005) went gold, and his follow-up Epiphany (2007) debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, powered by hits like "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')." Known for chart-topping singles such as "I'm Sprung," "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)," "Bartender," and "Can't Believe It," T-Pain has also been a prolific collaborator, appearing on numerous top-ten hits with artists including Kanye West, Flo Rida, Chris Brown, and Jamie Foxx. He won a Grammy for his work on Kanye West's "Good Life" and later introduced a new generation to his untouched vocal talent with a viral NPR Tiny Desk Concert in 2014 and his 2019 win on the inaugural season of The Masked Singer. T-Pain continues to tour, release music, and stream on Twitch, cementing his status as a pioneering and influential figure in modern pop music.
