It was only a matter of weeks ago that Faheem Rasheed Najm – better known as T-Pain – shocked an unsuspecting audience at NPR by performing without his infamous AutoTune at a Tiny Desk Concert. More than that, he sounded good. Damn good.
Not only did it give listeners a chance to hear the voice behind the mountainous production, it also came in close proximity to the release of Happy Hour, his first greatest-hits compilation. This gave us a chance to reconsider and revisit the work of a man who was, if only for a time, one of the most hated men in music. An immediate realisation follows: all the time we spent bemoaning the alleged death of quote-unquote “real” music, we could have spent having fun with tracks like Freeze, Buy U a Drank and Jamie Foxx collab, Blame It.
It’s shiny, unabashedly commercial and often ludicrous (there’s a song called I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper) for God’s sake). What’s revealed, however, is how dedicated T-Pain has been to the format; and how he still manages to make it work in his favour. Points off for shunning the anthemic Take Your Shirt Off, though.
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
Best Track: Blame
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: NE-YO, LIL WAYNE, JASON DERULO
In A Word: Shawty
