T-Pain

Faheem Rashad Najm (born September 30, 1984), better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer.

He is known for popularizing creative use of the Auto-Tune pitch correction effect, often used with extreme parameter settings to create electronic-styled vocal performances.

Blending this with contemporary R&B and hip hop sensibilities, his music became characterized by this distinction, with other music industry artists such as Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Future utilizing it to a similar affect.

T-Pain began his recording career as part of the short-lived hip hop group Nappy Headz.

T-Pain joined the rap group Nappy Headz in 1999.

Through a mutual connection with music promoter TJ Chapman, he was discovered by Rocco Did It Again! and Mike Blumstein—founders of the independent record label Chase Entertainment—to whom he signed.

He released debut solo mixtape, Back @ It independently in 2004, and signed with Senegalese-American singer Akon through his label Konvict Muzik, in a joint venture with Jive Records the following year.

He released his debut mixtape, Back @ It in 2004, and later released the song "I'm Fucked Up", a slightly-altered cover version of Akon's then-popular 2004 single, "Locked Up".

Akon himself came across the song and immediately offered him a deal to his label, Konvict Muzik.

While T-Pain was offered other record deals, with the highest-bidding being US$900,000, Akon promised the young artist a personal mentorship in the industry.

Meanwhile, Blumstein and Rocco remained involved in T-Pain's careers as joint co-managers.

Afterward, T-Pain began singing instead of rapping, and used this inspiration to begin recording for his debut studio album, Rappa Ternt Sanga.

His 2005 debut single, "I'm Sprung" was quickly met with commercial success, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and receiving platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Its follow up, "I'm 'n Luv (Wit a Stripper)" (featuring Mike Jones) saw further commercial success at number six on the chart; both served as lead singles for his debut studio album, Rappa Ternt Sanga (2005).

Outside of music, T-Pain founded the record label Nappy Boy Entertainment—adapted from the namesake group in which he began recording—in 2005, and has signed rapper Travie McCoy to brief commercial success.

Furthermore, he has produced and written material for other artists and voice acted in film and television such as Tom & Jerry, Freaknik: The Musical, The Cleveland Show, Squidbillies and We Bare Bears.

Najm was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, to parents Aliyah, a Bahamian chef, and Shasheem, who founded the Homeboyz to Men program.

His stage name is short for "Tallahassee Pain", and was chosen because of the hardships he experienced while living there.

Najm was brought up in a Muslim household, but he has expressed his lack of interest in the concept of religion.

At three years old, he got his first taste of the music business when a friend of the family, gospel jazz artist/producer Ben Tankard, allowed him to spend time and "twist the knobs" at his recording studio.

At age ten, Najm turned his bedroom into a music studio, using a keyboard, a beat machine and a four-track recorder.

Released on December 6, 2005 through a joint venture with Jive Records, the album reached number 33 on the Billboard 200, and has since received gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The album was preceded by the lead single, "I'm Sprung", which was released in August 2005 and peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and number nine on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

The second single, "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)", featuring Mike Jones, was released in December 2005 and peaked at number five on the former chart, and number ten on the latter.

The third and final single from the album, "Studio Luv", was released in October 2006 and failed to chart.

In mid-2006, T-Pain began work on his second album, now with the Zomba Label Group as well as his previous labels.

The album was moderately successful, while his second album, Epiphany (2007) peaked atop the US Billboard 200 and spawned the Billboard Hot 100-number one single "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" (featuring Yung Joc), as well as the top-40 single "Bartender" (featuring Akon).

The album, titled Epiphany, was released on June 5, 2007.

The album sold 171,000 records in its first week, reaching number one on the Billboard 200.

The record has since sold 819,000 records in the United States.

The album was preceded by the lead single "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" featuring Yung Joc, released in February 2007.

The song reached number one on both the Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, becoming his first to peak atop both charts.

The album's second single, "Bartender", featuring Akon, was released in June 2007 and reached number five on the Hot 100 and number nine on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

The third and final single from the album, "Church", was released in October 2007 and failed to chart in the United States.

Speaking in May 2007 to Pete Lewis of Blues & Soul about his reason for naming his second album 'Epiphany', T-Pain stated: "One of the two dictionary meanings of epiphany is 'a sudden moment of insight or revelation'. And to me the title 'Epiphany' signifies the moment I realized that, to make the best music I can, I needed to just go in the studio and be myself, and not concentrate so hard on following other people's formulas."

While promoting his second album, T-Pain made guest appearances on multiple songs by other artists.

T-Pain was featured on "I'm a Flirt" (remix) by R. Kelly with T.I., "Outta My System" by Bow Wow, "Baby Don't Go" by Fabolous, "I'm So Hood" by DJ Khaled with many other rappers, "Shawty" by Plies, "Kiss Kiss" by Chris Brown, "Low" by Flo Rida, and "Good Life" by Kanye West.

His third album, Three Ringz (2008) was preceded by the single "Can't Believe It" (featuring Lil Wayne), and his fourth album, Revolver (2011) was preceded by "5 O'Clock" (featuring Wiz Khalifa and Lily Allen).

His fifth album, Oblivion (2017) sustained long-term delays and was met with critical and commercial failure, serving as his final major label release.

Meanwhile, T-Pain saw continued success as a guest performer on nine Billboard Hot 100-top ten singles—"Shawty" by Plies, "Cyclone" by Baby Bash, "Good Life" by Kanye West, "Shawty Get Loose" by Lil Mama, "Got Money" by Lil Wayne, "Blame It" by Jamie Foxx, and "Hey Baby (Drop It to the Floor) by Pitbull—which includes two singles that peaked the chart: "Kiss Kiss" by Chris Brown and "Low" by Flo Rida. The latter was named third in the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade and received diamond (10× platinum) certification by the RIAA. "Good Life" and "Blame It" both received Grammy Awards for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Performance respectively, from T-Pain's total of 12 nominations for the award.