T-Pain is the Godfather of Auto-tune. Though there were many artists who used the vocoder before him, Pain revolutionized music in an incomparable way. Sure, he faced pushback from artists like Jay-Z, who released a song titled, “Death Of Auto-Tune” in response to T-Pain’s influence on rap. Evidently, Jay’s record didn’t hold much weight as the vocoder became a fixture in rap music in the years that followed. Artists like Future and Young Thug became ubiquitous figures due to their innovative auto-tune melodies that have defined the sound of hip-hop for the past decade.
Auto-tune never died but for the early years that rappers tried to adopt the technology, it wasn’t nearly as effective as T-Pain. With the exception of Kanye West – and even perhaps, Lil Wayne – those who tried to use auto-tune didn’t necessarily find similar success. Though rap purists shunned the idea of using a vocoder in the booth, there were many others who embraced it, even back then. So much so that Pain recently revealed that he got a check whenever someone would use auto-tune on their records.
T-Pain’s Auto-Tune Royalties
DJ Drama joined T-Pain for the latest episode of Nappy Boy Radio where the Gangsta Grillz creator listed Jay’s “Death Of Auto-Tune” as one of his top five songs. Pain explained that the song didn’t have the effect Jay thought it would, especially with the new crop of artists. Drama then asked Pain to confirm the rumors that he got paid every time someone used auto-tune. T-Pain confirmed it was true, revealing that several artists wrote him a check back in the day, such as Diddy.
“It was nuts, it was real crazy,” he said of that point of his career. “Some people volunteered and some people didn’t know, so that was great. Diddy volunteered. Diddy gave me points on Last Train To Paris ’cause he used Auto-Tune.” Pain added that there’s video evidence on a hard drive of Diddy “writing a contract on a napkin in the studio saying he was gonna give me a point on Last Train To Paris.” Hopefully, that video emerges in the near future. Check the full interview out above.
