his kiddy love for a stripper and now he's embarked on an
Epiphany. His sophomore album with that subsequent title,
Epiphany, furthermore proves that T-Pain is merely in his
prime when it comes to this R&B music thing.
T-Pain, who's birth name is Faheem Najm, is not your ordinary
R&B artist. As a matter of fact, the classification of his music
falls under what he calls "Hard&B." He's a one man show,
writing and producing all of the songs on his recently released
album. With club going singles like, "Buy you a drank" and
"Bartender", T-Pain is not only moving the party-goers with
his smooth groves and catchy hooks, but he's the number
one ring tone on just about every cellular phone across the
nation. With over 157k ring tones sold thus far, one can
only marvel the amount of success this Tallahassee born,
southern slang singing, number one hit making, writing and
producing phenomenon has to attribute to his catalog of
accomplishments.
ring tone sales or your album sales?
to album sales `cause truthfully not everyone has
heard any or most of the songs on my album(s). So
I would have to say my ring tone sales definitely.
event. What exactly takes place on that day?
comes out and either I perform or mix and mingle
with my fans. It's nothing formal at all. T-Pain Day
is whatever I want to do day in Tallahassee.
Sprung" days. So what should the fans expect
from this new album?
able to understand what I've been through over
the past two years. They'll be able to hear, through
my music, that I have more knowledge in this field
of work.
latest album?
have to be "Right Hand." It's a song about a guy
cheating on his girl and telling the truth about it.
as an artist?
everything the `hard way.' The `easy way' is
paying someone to produce a song for you and
then having another person write to what was
produced. The `hard way' is doing that all by
yourself, which is what I do. I produce and write
my music, direct my videos and DVD's. It's the
`hard way' out and that's me.
with namely people of West Indian decent. Do
you have a Caribbean background?
that?
has dreads over there; not as many people as you
would expect. That's what's crazy.
artist out of Tallahassee to song writing
as R. Kelly, Britney Spears, Usher, Bow Wow and
Akon. How does it feel to be widely requested by
these entertainers to collaborate with on a track
whether it's lyrically or vocally?
don't know what happened over the last 12 months,
but I guess people are starting to see the light, not
saying that I'm the shit, but people are starting to
recognize my talent that's all. R. Kelly and Cee-lo went
through the same thing. It took a while for people to
recognize and appreciate what they were doing. I can
definitely say that I was ahead of my time and people
are just catching up.
vocal ability. Is that just a sound effect that you
create as part of your signature sound? Will we
ever hear you without it?
don't use it [synthesizer] at all. As matter of fact, I
don't use it on a lot of the tracks on my album. It has
nothing to do with vocal ability because I've done two
songs with Chris Brown and he's used it. Everybody
knows Chris Brown can sing his ass off but he uses it
also. If he uses it, then it has nothing to do with vocal
ability
seemed to be a breeze for you, should we expect
another conversion coming soon as Tyrese aka
Black-Ty did with his album Alter-Ego?
it before and it was cool. I even rap on some songs on
my album and I don't agree with him [Tyrese] being
the first one to attempt that [he laughs]. But it's all
good guess.
just your featured songs? Judging from the
responses from R. Kelly's "I'm a Flirt", E-40's
"U and Dat" and your single, "Buy You a Drank"
feat Young Joc, record sales would probably go
through the roof!
street. Matter of fact I bought one the other day.
years?
plans set; I just kinda go with the flow.
to know about T-Pain before we conclude this
interview?