Faheem Najm—sound familiar? If not, perhaps you know him better by his stage name, T-Pain. Despite being married with two children, his songs about hitting on bartenders and buying women drinks have propelled him to stardom in a pop/R&B field flooded with younger, more visible talents.
T-Pain’s rise has been stunningly quick. Singing almost entirely with an effect called auto-tune—which sounds a lot like a Daft Punk-esque robot voices—T-Pain’s distinct voice has been everywhere over the last year. Kanye West, R. Kelly, Rick Ross, Chris Brown, and Lil Mama have all released singles prominently featuring him. His influence has been so widespread that even rappers Lil’ Wayne and Snoop Dogg have released singles featuring their own surprisingly good T-Pain impressions, both of which shot to the top of the charts.
But while it’s tempting to look at T-Pain’s success and praise his manipulation of sound as unique and visionary, a bit of research into the history of the auto-tune device indicates that T-Pain is only the latest in a long tradition of singers using the effect. Classic rock artists like Pink Floyd and the Alan Parsons Project experimented with it, not to mention Cher, but it became most famous as the calling-card for early 80s funk pioneers Zapp.
The five brothers from Ohio had a run of success early in their career, especially with their first hit “More Bounce to the Ounce.” But after the excitement surrounding their self-titled debut died down, they released a few middling albums before breaking up. Although leader Roger Troutman had a successful solo career that relied on the same kind of effects, he will probably be best remembered for singing the chorus to Tupac’s “California Love” rather than for any of his own work.
And though T-Pain is a big name right now it’s entirely possible that his career will fade just as quickly as it has risen. If more artists find a way to emulate his vocal effects, they’ll likely stop calling him up for guest appearances. And because he’s such a one-trick pony, such a situation would probably spell the end of his career.
But right now, T-Pain is all the rage. While there is certainly no consensus on how good he really is—some critics have been especially hostile toward his quick rise—his particular style is a lot easier to stomach than some other trends in pop today (read: cell-phone rap à la Hurricane Chris and Soulja Boy). It will be interesting to see how long T-Pain’s hold on pop music lasts.
For more Pain, contact Justin at jhs55@georgetown.edu.
