T-Pain is taking it in stride amid perceived disrespect over his undeniable influence on the use of Auto-Tune as an instrument.
In a bizarre and patently ridiculous slice of engagement bait nonsense this week, Twitter users were asked, "Who do you think is the King of Auto-Tune?" The post gave four options: T-Pain, Lil Yachty, Don Toliver, and Travis Scott. While all of these artists have used the ubiquitous audio processor in assuredly unique ways, with both La Flame and Yachty, for example, having delved further into the effects-focused approach utilized by Ye on numerous classic records, it should go without saying that T-Pain belongs in a class all his own.
In a presumed nod to this fact, the Rappa Ternt Sanga artist kept his response to this inquiry short but revealing by enlisting a six-second clip from the oft-referenced Antoine Fuqua film Training Day, starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke.
"Oh, you motherfuckers. Okay, alright," Denzel's character, LAPD Detective Alonzo Harris, says in the pivotal moment from the 2001 crime drama, which earned the actor an Oscar. The full scene, available below, is among the most widely quoted of Denzel's career and includes the still-in-constant-rotation line, "King Kong ain't got shit on me!"
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T-Pain, by sheer default, would take the crown among this group of vocalists due to his use of the tool far preceding the work of the other listed artists. His aforementioned debut, for example, was released way back in 2005. Even Ye seems to have understood T-Pain’s importance at one point, as he famously enlisted him during sessions for an album that would take Auto-Tune to new artistic heights and thus reinvent the modern music landscape in the process, i.e. the characteristically ahead-of-its-time 2008 classic 808s & Heartbreak.
In an anniversary-commemorating interview with Billboard back in 2015, T-Pain said that Ye specifically mentioned Rappa Ternt Sanga as an inspiration on the deeply vulnerable album, the release of which came roughly a year after the death of Ye’s mother, Donda West.
"He even brought me in to make it sound more like Rappa Ternt Sanga," T-Pain said at the time, adding that this was "evidence" of his album's impact.
Next for T-Pain is a run of tour dates as part of his traveling Mansion in Wiscansin Party experience. After that, he'll be out on the road with Pitbull.
