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T-Pain follows his instincts to success
Rapper-turned-singer T-Pain is so prolific in the studio that the speed with which he writes songs doesn't fly with some collaborators.
"I don't really write stuff down," T-Pain said during an interview with LiveDaily. "As I''m producing a beat, I'll be writing a song, so as soon as I'm done making the beat, I'm right in the booth and recording the song. It's a quick process. It's pretty fast.
"If I'm doing something for somebody else, we have this ongoing joke of, like, 'Beats in 30 minutes or your money back.' It's really quick. It's so fast [that] a lot of people don't think I take my time with them because I do it so quick; they try not to accept. Even if it's good, they said, 'He gave it to me too fast; I don't think you got the full potential.' It don't matter how fast it is. It just happens."
His process works. T-Pain's album "THR33 RINGZ" debuted at No. 4 on The Billboard 200 Album Chart. The CD was propelled by the success of lead single "Can't Believe It" (featuring Lil Wayne ), which hit No. 1 at urban radio, No. 2 at crossover, No.7 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and spawned a "Most Played Video" at BET
The album features a circus theme,and T-Pain kicked off the shtick with an entrance to the MTV Video Music Awards atop an elephant. Hes said the big-top theme represents his views on the music industry.
"I'm pretty much cracking the whip in the industry," T-Pain said. "It seemed like I was doing that for awhile. The ringleader of a circus does the same thing, so that's where the whole 'THR33 RINGZ' came from. It's kind of like the 'three' is significant because it's my third album. The 'THR33 RINGZ' concept is: this is my three-ring circus."
But, he said, the shtick isn't going to last for long. It wraps up after he finishes his arena jaunt with Lil Wayne, Keyshia Cole, Gym Class Heroes and Keri Hilson.
"It's going to end after this album," T-Pain said. "I'm giving away all the top hats and moving on after this album."
On "THR33 RINGZ," T-Pain worked with a list of special guests that reads like a who's who of hip-hop and R&B: Ludacris, Chris Brown, Ciara, Lil Wayne, Akon, T.I., Kayne West, Musiq Soulchild, Raheem DeVaughn, Jay Lyriq, Young Cash, Mary J. Blige, Akon, Diddy, Tay Dizm and DJ Khaled. T-Pain said there was one person in particular from which he learned the most.
"Diddy," he said. "Hands down. The person who's the least on the album, I learned the most from. He gave me a lot of wise words that just pop up in the middle of conversations. I learned a lot from him."
The latest single from "THR33 RINGZ," "Freeze," is a song T-Pain performs with Brown. T-Pain considers the cut a hand-me-down.
"It should be pretty hot," he said. "I wrote it for Omarion, actually. Then he didn't take it, so I took it. It worked out great. I'm not really good at thinking anything is going to be a single. I just make the songs; if people respond to [one song] more than other songs, that's what happens."
