T-Pain has faced his fair share of conflict in the music industry throughout his career. One big topic includes the negative reception toward auto-tune during the biggest points of his career. Many felt the singer’s use of the filter on his voice made it easier for singers who could not sing to find success in music, or as Usher allegedly put it, T-Pain “really f*cked up music for real singers.”
This resulted in another low moment for T-Pain with the release of Jay-Z’s “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune),” which many felt was targeted at the singer.
During a recent appearance on N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN’s Drink Champs, T-Pain reflected on that song and explained whether he felt it was a targeted attack against him.
“Of course! A wise man once said, ‘You can’t knock the hustle,’” he said. “I’m the face of this. Just like Lil Yachty was the face of mumble rap—anytime somebody talk about mumble rap, Lil Yachty was the first person to come up. I was the face of Auto-Tune. Anytime somebody said, ‘Auto-Tune,’ I’m the face. So, when you say Auto-Tune is wack, I’m the face.”
He continued, “If I woulda said f*ckin’ blue Yankees are terrible, everybody woulda been like, ‘Oh you dissin’ Jay-Z now?’ … Anytime [Jay] says something is wack, it’s trash.”
T-Pain then revealed that he almost released a diss song in response to “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune),” but his team advised him not to.
“I was, like, really drunk. I was ready to go,” he admitted. “I went into the studio and started recording the record and my managers were like, ‘I think we just need to take a break.’ … We were supposed to take a break for four months, I ended up taking a break for four years.”
You can watch the full episode of Drink Champs above.
