T-Pain Biography

Coming straight out of Tallahassee, Florida, the popular rap and R&B artist T-Pain is dropping hits all over the airwaves and collaborating with some of the most famous names in the hip-hop industry. T-Pain has a soothing, silky voice, oftentimes auto-tuned to sound more electronic. He can also show flashes of a more high-energy flow when he raps. Whether you've heard his music on the radio or at the club, T-Pain is a clearly recognizable and growing force in the hip hop world, one that doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon.Born as Faheem Najm, this artist developed his stage name, T-Pain, after breaking onto the local music scene in Florida. As a young child, T-Pain was always experimenting with music, mixing records, singing and raping in his room, which he turned into a full-fledged recording studio. T-Pain's transition from local MC to more widespread fame came after the artist Akon heard one of T-Pain's early songs. Once he got the ear of Akon's Konvict Muzik record label, T-Pain burst onto the scene in 2005 with some of his most famous songs, "I'm Sprung" and "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)," both of which were part of the album Rappa Ternt Sanga. The album's title accurately reflects the central change T-Pain made while leaving the local club scene- where raw tenacity prevails- and joining the larger national stage, where appealing on the radio means sanding down the edges. He also wrote and produced many of the tracks on Rappa Ternt Sanga, though the album's phonetic title would have been stretched to the limit of readability to include his other contributions to its success.With a successful album and a couple of hit songs out, T-Pain went on to work as a featured performer on the tracks of other hip-hop artists such as E-40, in "U and Dat," R. Kelly, in "I'm a Flirt (Remix)," and Plies, in "Shawty".T-Pain's next album, Epiphany, was released in May of 2007 under Jive Records. Loaded with chart-climbing singles like "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')," "Bartender" and "Church," Epiphany helped to solidify the base of what should be a long musical career for T-Pain. Given the inroads he's already made with numerous other artists, his multi-function voice, production success and songwriting ability, you should expect to see T-Pain and his flailing dreadlocks appear in the videos of numerous other artists looking for a well-rounded talent. Look for T-Pain to follow in the footsteps of artists like Kanye West, Akon and Usher, all of whom have wisely chosen to work with him in the past.