He might not really be in love with a stripper, but T-Pain sure can sing. A self-professed rapper turned singer, T-Pain began mixing beats and rapping at the age of ten, in a small studio he pieced together in his bedroom. After graduating high school, T-Pain gained underground exposure as a member of influential Tallahassee rap group Nappy Headz. Though a regionally acclaimed rapper, T-Pain was also a skilled singer, and decided to differentiate himself from the pack by blending contemporary hip-hop style with R&B flavor. He formed his own record label, Hard & B, and began mixing tunes. Rapper/singer Akon liked his style, and signed him onto his Konvict Music record label in 2005.

By the end of the year, T-Pain released his first album, Rappa Ternt Sanga. Fueled by distinctive synth-beats, cameos by Akon and Mike Jones, and T-Pain’s fly singing, the album went on to sell over 800,000 copies. T-Pain’s distorted singing is achieved using the auto-tone effect, a digital pitch correction method that can make vocals pulsate to the pitch of the song - perfect for playful party tunes like I'm In Luv (Wit A Stripper) and I'm Sprung, though T-Pain also showcases his musical diversity on Rappa Terna Sanga with the occasional tearjerker track like I'm So High, a song about the destructive nature of street drugs.

As T-Pain’s tuneful style of singing gained fans in the music industry he became a popular background singer, with his wavering choruses forming the foundation for several hit songs, including DJ Khaled's ghetto anthem I'm So Hood, a remixed version of R. Kelly's sensual song I'm a Flirt, and Kanye West's Grammy winning collaboration Good Life. Riding on this success, T-Pain’s second album, 2007’s Epiphany, went gold in three months and continues to sell. Picking up where Rappa Ternt Sanga left off, T-Pain’s sophomore effort is just as catchy but far more creative, relying not just on his auto-tone crooning (Bartender) but also dabbling in fast-paced latin-infused dance (Church) and tongue-in-cheek humor (Buy U a Drank.) Ever mindful of his modest beginnings as a fledgling artist, T-Pain has helped launch the careers of fellow Florida artists Plies and Flo Rida by appearing on their hit singles Shawty and Low, respectively.

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