Friday, June 18, 2010

What Exactly Did T-Pain Think Would Happen?

After reading and posting about T-Pain’s comments regarding why he isn’t releasing any music until album sales pick up, I really got to thinking. The question that kept on popping in my head as I tried to see his side of things was: “what exactly did he think would happen?”

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve turned the volume up on just as many T-Pain singles as well as features just as I’ve turned down the one’s I couldn’t quite stomach; so I can acknowledge that the man has had a good run. But for the most part, T-Pain still hasn’t proven himself to be in any position to be men-o-pausing over album sales.

For a 24 year old, T-Pain (real name Faheem Rasheed Najm) has accomplished a lot. His songs have charted well, being amongst the top 10 hottest singles in the country and he has die-hard fans that will defend his honor to their final breaths…well maybe not their final breaths but you get where I’m going.

Not to mention, he’s landed a couple of endorsements and major commercial spots.

The only issue here is that he has yet to prove to us that he is a worthy contender in music.

The majority of the awards that he has won were all awarded based on the songs he was featured on – one being Jamie Foxx’s summer smash “Blame It” and the other Kanye West’s “Good Life.” T-Pain is entertaining as a featured artist but not so much as a solo artist.

The other annoying presence that makes as much sense as Jerry Springer’s "Final Thought" is his trusty sidekick, Auto-Tune.

Maybe I’m a little bias against the pitch corrector. I’ve only liked it sprinkled here in there but never as a main course. So when T-Pain made his debut using it at its highest level, I wanted to scrape my nails on a jagged chalk board only because I felt it sounded better. Again, there are some songs that I do like from T-Pain, but for those songs to be all together on one album is pure torture.

I sincerely feel that if at some point he axed the use of Auto-Tune he would still be as relevant as the artists of today. The fact that he continued to use it even after he gained immense popularity (and then everyone began jumping on the bandwagon which made Auto-Tune even more unbearable) ended up hurting him in the long run.

I also believe that if he had stated his peace in regards to Jay-Z’s reference to him in ”Death of Auto Tune” while he stood next to Jay-Z on stage at 2009’s Summer Jam, he would have had the upper hand.

Nas was able to put Jay-Z in his place when Jay called him out on a song, T-Pain could have been able to do the same.

What did T-Pain think? Did he believe that he would be able to ride the Auto Tune wave into legendary status? Although he made it popular again, he wasn’t the first person to use it.

Then again, by the sound of his latest rant it doesn’t seem like entertainment – that people would normally pay to see or hear – wasn’t the number one thing on T-Pain’s agenda.

Much like the circus that T-Pain uses as his image, it can get boring. The clowns are fun and their tricks are entertaining but somewhere down the line the smell of the elephants and their dung can get the best of the experience.

T-Pain is set to perform at this year’s BET Awards. If he does it sans Auto-Tune, interest may be regained.

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