The rapper turned singer says he wasn’t a Biggie or 2Pac fan.
Tallahassee Pain aka T-Pain made big music waves in 2005 with his solo singing debut, Rappa Turnt Sanga. A former group member of the Nappy Headz, two-time BET award winner found personal fame with his Auto-Tune style.
In an “At: Guitar Center with Nic Harcourt” interview, the rapper, who literally became a singer, says no one in music influenced him to be the kind of artist he was (ahem, Roger Troutman?). He admits Busta Rhymes, Cee Lo and Andre 3000 are his favorites.
“Not being afraid to do what they wanted to do.… If I wanted to hear something different, I know I could count on those few artists,” the 25-year-old artist says.
While he confesses he didn’t start listening to music until 1999, he also says, “I wasn’t the huge 2Pac fan. I wasn’t the Biggie fan.… I didn’t want to be stuck in the stereotypical urban field.”
Thankfully for Pain, he says he wasn’t forced into that world. Having taught himself how to play piano and guitar, the “Bartender” singer says of his style, “If you go into it without any idea of how to do it, you make up your own way to do it.”
(Photo: Terrence Jennings/PictureGroup)
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