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T-Pain

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T-Pain

Faheem Najm (born June 30, 1985 in Tallahassee, Florida) known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American hip hop, R&B singer and producer.

History

Faheem was born in Tallahassee to entrepreneur Muslim parents, Shasheem Najm and Aliyah Najm. He has two brothers, Hasheem and Hakim, and two sisters, A'pril and KeKe. In his thank you section of the CD cover for Epiphany, he thanks his wife, Amber, daughter, Lyriq, and son, Muziq.

At the age of ten, Faheem reworked his bedroom into a small studio with a keyboard, beat machine and four track recorder, and began composing music. Faheem later graduated from James S. Rickards High School.

Prior to becoming a solo singer, Faheem was part of the Tallahassee rap group Nappy Headz. They had mild success with local hits such as "Cotti" and "FLA BOYZ". This allowed T-Pain to jumpstart his career as a solo artist. In 2002, he founded his own label, Hard & B. and soon caught the spotlight as a solo artist when his song "Fucked Up", a reworked version of Akon's "Locked Up", gained popularity in the region. Akon noticed the song and signed T-Pain to his newly formed Konvict Music record label. T-Pain released his solo debut single, "I'm Sprung", in August 2005. His debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released on November 6, 2005, under Konvict Music. Hit singles "I'm Sprung" and "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)" spawned official remixes titled "I'm Sprung 2" with Trick Daddy and YoungBloodZ, and "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper), The Remix" with Twista, Pimp C, Paul Wall, R. Kelly, MJG and Too $hort. He is featured on E-40's 2006 summer hit single U and Dat along with Kandi Girl, which was produced by Lil Jon.

He has released a song for MySpace lovers, called "What's Your Myspace" featuring Tay Dizm. He released a song with Florida Artist J-Shin, called "Send Me An E-Mail". The video for the song was co-directed by T-Pain and fellow Floridian filmmaker JOKES and co-starred "MySpace Queen" Tila Tequila. His new single is "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" featuring Yung Joc, which he produced for his upcoming album Epiphany. The video for "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" was released April 9, and the song went to #1. It contains cameos by Jay-Z, Huey, Shawnna, and E-40.

He has released his second album Epiphany on the 5th of June, 2007, that features "Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin')" and his new hit-single "Bartender" featuring Akon. This album has sold approximately 500,000 copies. T-Pain has lately appeared on hits such as Plies' "Shawty", R.Kelly's "I'm a Flirt", Bow Wow's "Outta My System", Fabolous' "Baby Don't Go, Birdman, Lil' Wayne's "Know What I'm Doin'", and Kanye West's "Good Life". It has also been confirmed that T-Pain has produced three tracks for pop star Britney Spears upcoming album, including the song "Cold As Fire" which leaked online on August 30th.

As of the 11 October 2007 T-Pain was featured on 6 singles within in the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100 and 9 within the complete chart, this could be a record.

Style

T-Pain's music is R&B, with both his musical style and lyrical topics placing him firmly in the mainstream with the traditional platforms of the genre. Almost all of his songs have some form of pitch corrector effect on the vocals. In a departure from the mainstream, T-Pain also brings up issues like HIV in some songs. T-Pain also experiments with the "Crunk&B" style of music made famous by artists such as Ciara. As well as that, he is following in Akon's footsteps and becoming very popular in hooks. T-Pain focuses on singing R&B but recently he's been rapping and practicing in Dance Hall toasting in some tracks,for example "Church" (from his last album Epiphany) "Sent Me An Email" by J-Shin and "Show U How" "Shottas" (both also from Epiphany)

Controversy

In a May 2007 interview with SOHH.com, T-Pain made comments regarding R&B singer Ray J's genitalia.

“Not too many guys can go after Ray J. The man got a huge meat, ok. He’s short, the man is packing. He’s got length on him. I got the width. Shit is wide. He got a foot on him. Man have a foot on him. Much respect to Ray. Man to man. No homo. Ya’ll seen that shit. Ya’ll know the man’s swanging.”[1]

These comments attracted much attention from the hip-hop press. T-Pain himself later revealed Ray-J did not take the comments as complimentary,[2] though Ray-J has since stated the two are now on good terms.[3]

Awards/Nominations

  • Vibe Music Awards
    • 2007, Best R&B Artist [Nominated]
    • 2007, Best Collaboration ("Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin)") [Nominated]

Discography

Main article: T-Pain discography

Solo Albums

Solo Singles

References

  1. ^ SOHH Whatchusayin. SOHH. Accessed August 17 2007.
  2. ^ T-Pain Says Ray J's Pissed at "Huge Meat" Compliment, Jermaine Dupri, DJ Clue and Others Party on in NYC. SOHH. Accessed August 17 2007.
  3. ^ Ray-J & T-Pain Word 4 Word. SOHH. Accessed August 17 2007.


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