Next Level Pros - #98: T-Pain; How the King of Autotune Went from $40 Million to $0

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

Welcome to a new episode of The Founder Podcast. In this episode, I’m joined by the man who made auto-tune a musical masterpiece - T-Pain! This episode pulls no punches, exploring the raw journey of a legendary artist. We'll delve into his humble beginnings, the challenges that tested his limits, and the successes that proved his status as a genre-bending icon. Prepare for unfiltered honesty as T-Pain reflects on his life, his music, and the impact he's had on the industry. Don't miss this chance to see the man behind the mask - an episode that's as real as it gets. Highlights:: "Money won't solve your problems. It solves your financial issues but not your problems." "You get to see where people's parameters are; you get to see if I'm down, everybody's cool... But when you get successful again, it's like, 'What makes you so good?'" "Speak. Say the weird thing. Just do it. Just go. When you say it out loud, it creates problems in the past; when you hold it in, it creates problems in the future." Timestamps: 00:00 - The Pitfalls of Early Fame 03:33 - Breaking Away from Religious Constraints 06:03 - Family Dynamics: Then vs. Now 10:06 - Evolving Personal Image 15:00 - Learning from Business Failures and Successes 19:30 - The Dark Side of Financial Management 26:10 - The Origin of a Signature Sound 33:04 - The Impact of Industry Critique on Career 37:25 - The Rollercoaster of Public Perception 43:11 - Reflecting on Life After the Show Looking to scale your business? Want to learn directly from the same team that helped me sell my last business for 9 figures? Click this link below to check out how you can work with us. https://nextlevelhomepros.com/grow-home-service-vsl Join my community - Founder Acceleration ⁠https://www.founderacceleration.com ⁠ Apply for our next Mastermind:h⁠ttps://www.thefoundermastermind.com⁠  Golf with Chris h⁠ttps://www.golfwithchris.com⁠  Watch my latest Podcast Apple- ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281S⁠ Spotify- ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2⁠ YouTube - @thefounderspodcast

I know there are obstacles and there's things that we had to grow up into. There's a lot of immature things I did, obviously, because, you know, maybe don't give a 19-year-old $40 million. I don't know. You know what I mean? So, $19, $40 million, what I know, I mean, that ran dry at one point. Where did it all go? I have no idea. I have no idea. I kind of have some ideas.

That's the crazy thing. I don't have access to my money. Really? So I had my account and I had to call my manager to be like, Hey, yo, I want to buy this thing. Can you send me some money to my car? And then that's how I got money. I thought that's how it worked. You're asking for permission to use your own stuff.

To use my own money. So they came and got me when I was 18 years old. So I'm thinking that's just how that works. This must be big business stuff. I didn't know about business back then. So it's just how that works this must be big business stuff i didn't know my business back then so it's like yeah this must be how it works i had no intentions on that being my thing at all yeah so i heard it on a jennifer lopez song and then i was like i want to try to do that for a whole song but i don't know what it's called i went through every preset of every plugin i have and i i came up on auttune and I found it I was like oh my god I finally found it on the sixth

day all right so we got here we got Faheem Najim look at you nailing it better known as T-Pain yeah let's go let's go indeed so at what point in your life did you did you shift your name um man pretty early on I think I think I was about 14 14 14 yeah it definitely wasn't d pain i will say that uh first name was uh shorty pop shorty pop shorty pop that was the first name yeah well my parents called me pop and i was part of a group called the shorty Niners. Okay. And we all wore San Francisco jerseys. So why'd you go by Pop? I was fat. Cause my parents, you gotta understand,

in black culture we don't pronounce things right sometimes. And my parents would call it a Pop Belly Pig. Wow. So they called me Pop because my stomach was out of control so you were shorty pop for what a couple years how long a couple is a couple years i don't know i can't remember but it was it was awesome um i'd say about three or four years yeah so a few but uh but never really gone by fahim no no no no no no it was already hard enough for people to

pronounce it how my teachers in school couldn't pronounce it and so it was one of those things that i didn't i didn't want to confuse the world and you know growing up muslim it was like nobody really liked that at the time it was like you know so it's like let's kind of back away from that and i didn't know any more people named Fa'im, so I didn't. So are your parents practicing Muslims? Yeah, yeah, so I was born Muslim. So that was, I was right into it, like right off the bat.

So yeah, my dad converted when he was in college and then my mom converted with him. So that was, that was rough. So you grew up that way at what point because i based on my understanding is like you don't consider yourself religious no no not at all not once i had uh pepperoni pizza i was like man i need meat i was out i was out now it's because they don't eat pork or no it was just a lot it was just you know a lot to do and it was just so many strongholds and and things that kind of you know it was it's kind of

segregating it felt like you know i mean like it felt like we couldn't be friends with certain people it felt like we you know if we believe different things and we can't hang around certain people or you know uh even some of my christ and we can't hang around certain people or, you know, even some of my Christian friends, parents was like, don't go hanging around those Muslims. And it was like, damn, like Jesus. Wow. So I would. Yeah. You know, I just wanted to I just wanted to be a person. Yeah. Not really defined by religion or a belief or anything like that. So I just kind of it's not that I got out of it i mean i was really never into it right because as a child like you know praying five times a day was crazy dude that's a lot cutting into my playtime i have several friends that are practicing muslims yeah and it's like man they are dedicated yeah it's in there and

i don't know which way east and west is man i can't find i'm so disoriented all the time i gotta use uh ways everywhere i go i can't stop everywhere every time i'm doing something and but i don't know man it was just it just wasn't for me it is i just wanted to be so was that hard on your parents i mean were they like super religious and they were like no they didn't know they didn't care my mom like loves christmas you know what i mean so obviously for the obvious reasons for the consumerism reasons but also because christmas is just you know something she grew up with and it was a special time in her life and then when she got to college she converted with my dad and it was like well now we don't have christmas what's this now? So she wasn't like super into it.

My dad was an imam, which is basically, I might be wrong because I never really looked into it. But from my understanding, he's like a rabbi. You're right. Wow. That's my understanding of it. I never really asked. I just knew he was very important. Yeah.

So he was in it, in in it he was like a public speaker and all that stuff so i don't think he was sad that i got out of it i think he was more proud that i chose a way yeah you know what i mean that i chose to be a be my own person and not so much as you know i'm sure he would have liked if i would have followed him into everything he did and you know in some form I am a public speaker. Right. You know what I mean? So it's kind of like I did follow him, but you know, I'm just, I'm pretty confident that he's happy

that I just chose a path and not, you know, lazing about. And you, you consider yourself a family person, right? Family man? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Is that always? Not at first. Not at first. I didn't know about like, my my like my parents and my my siblings we were never like close yeah like my wife's family oh my god completely different bro it's like they tell each other they love them and i was like is that? So that never happened growing up? What?

No. No, that, what the? You love me. So no hugs, no? Oh, what? No. My mom gave me a Mike's Heart lemonade once. That was her way to show you.

That was it. Whatever she was drinking, she let me drink whatever she was drinking. But it's like, I don't know. I mean i mean it's a typical i would say typical black family you know what i mean um you know you grow up learning that things are hard and they're gonna be hard for your life so it's like cut all that muscle man let's get to work you know what i mean so it was it was real tough on the family but i didn't know it because that's just how I grew up. There was no- It was what you grew up around.

I didn't have a reference. You know what I mean? Right. So that's just what it was. But it was, you know, we never told each other we love each other until my brother passed away. My brother passed away and everybody's like, oh, we can die?

Like, hey, we got a lot of, we got a lot of to catch up on. How old were you when that happened? This was four years ago. Oh, man. This was, you know, or five, five years ago now. But, you know. So it was like, it was like a big eye opener for you.

Oh, my God. Now we got a family group text and shit. Like, it's just like. Never happened before. Everybody checking on each other. Like, hey, everybody, still alive? It's like, God's just like, everybody checking on each other. Like, Hey, everybody still alive. It's like, God damn. Like, you know, but now feeling it is like, we missed out on a lot. You know, we went, we like,

we did a lot of stuff. Like, you know, we did family. Like we went to a golden corral, you know, we hit the buffet every now and then, but you know, seeing how my wife's family is like even her cousins and disneyville like all of them we love you like i missed out on a ton of love like but i knew it was there it wasn't like we didn't love each other it's just we didn't have a way to show it yeah so it was like a it was a hardening process you know what i mean it was a hardening process, you know what I mean? It was dipping the steel in the cold water. It was, you know, and I think that, you know,

I think it helped, it definitely hurt also, but it helped a lot, me getting through this industry, you know what I mean? So it did help. So you, as a father, you now have three kids, right? So is that family dynamic completely? Four. You have four kids? Four. Oh man, sweet. father, you now have three kids, right? So is that family dynamic? Four. You have four kids?

Four. Oh, man. Yeah. Sweet. How old are they? 20, 17, 15, 17. Okay. Yeah.

And so how is that shaped? So you grew up one way. Your wife grew up completely different. Yeah. How did she change me? Yeah. You know, like you can. Oh, man, you can almost see. Like if you go back and see my past like interviews, you can kind of see the moment I got married. It's like it's scary, bro, because once I started meeting her family, I'm like, I don't have to be this person that I'm being like,'s scary bro because once i started meeting her family i'm like i don't have to be this person right that i'm being like you know because you go out with this mindset that you got to be this kind of person you got to talk a certain way and you know people saw this flip of just how i talk you know what i mean it was this it was this weird it was this weird feeling of

oh man i can drop this now i don't have to be this guy anymore you know and also trying to impress her you know uh i didn't want to be i didn't like when we go out obviously she's beautiful as you know she's half white and every time we went out the way i looked everybody was looking at her like ma'am are you okay like is this man bothering you like so i was like i gotta i gotta straighten up you know what i mean i gotta dress better i gotta speak more you know i just not eloquently but you know like i gotta i gotta not talk like i don't know what words are you know what i mean but that was that was what i grew up learning that's how you know that's how everybody around me talked and you know once i i wanted to mostly just protect her

yeah you know what i mean and just be a better person so i gotta imagine right so you guys have been married so she's obviously changed you and shift you a lot yeah you've been married over 20 years yeah just over 20 years and the whole time that's when you're developing your music career yeah right yeah i can't imagine that's gotta be like easy on her especially the the line of work that you were doing in the things that you it was it was it was easier on her because she's military you know what i mean she was in the air force and yeah when i met her she was in the air force yeah the way we met is she was coming down to my studio to hear her sister's music that i was producing okay so you know i was producing her sister and a friend and she came down listening when she left out of my house from

listening to the music she's like hey that's my husband in there i didn't know she said that and i was weird as hell the crazy thing is we got the whole night on film i used to carry around a little jvc high eight yes i used to carry around the camcorder at all times just to i don't know why i just love technology you know what i mean like so i'm real big into tech and like that and and people find that weird i guess i'm yeah i know you uh you had a show for a couple seasons right yeah yeah yeah you go into like different businesses yeah man i'm really into that and so you know i used to carry around the camp court all the time but the fact

that she was in the military like she's used to like schedules and you know me not being around and her having to go work while i'm doing this. And that's really what shaped a lot of this because she was in the military and I was dirt poor. Yeah. Dirt. She used to send me $80 like every month to just try to live. Wow. Like she used to give me her paycheck and not eat.

This was before you were married? No, yeah. This is like the year before we were married. Wow. Because we've only known each other for 21 years. Yeah. And we've been married for 20 years. Right. like the year before we were married. Wow. Because we've only known each other for 21 years. Right. And we've been married for 20 years. Right.

So the year before, she would give me her entire paycheck and just not eat because she wanted me to just keep doing what I'm doing. So she got with you when you were dirt poor, didn't really have a name for yourself. At all. All these things. Well, I was tri-state famous because I was in a group. You know what I mean? But she didn't know. Majorly famous. She had no f***ing idea. Right. She had no idea who we were. Right. Well, I was tri-state famous because I was in a group. You know what I mean?

But she didn't know. Majorly famous. She had no f***ing idea. She had no idea who we were. She didn't care. Right. But then your career takes off, man. And, you know, the industry you're in, you're always around girls. Right?

Yeah. You got all kinds of crazy stuff going on. I'm sure there's drugs, girls. It's a lot going on. Yeah. All the things. Yeah. How does a

woman like her say like i trust you uh or stay the good news is the good news is she likes girls and drugs too so lucked up on that one you know what i mean so it was uh it was a transitional period to where i felt like i had to sneak around but then it's like no i want to do that with you yeah and you know that's she's here with me you know what i mean so she started going on the road where I felt like I had to sneak around. But then it's like, no, I want to do that with you. Yeah. And, you know, she's here with me, you know what I mean? So she started going on the road with me. And, you know, we both were doing girls and drugs. So it was a little easier in my place.

You know, I mean, obviously there were periods where it was just like I felt like the sneaky guy, but it was just like, I don't have to but it was just like i don't have to like why not why not just so are you guys in an open relationship no no that's a that's a big misconception that a lot of people have that we're in an open relationship because that means both parties can just go do whatever they want right we just invite other girls into our like it's just not you know what i mean so we're big into threesomes like that that's interesting yeah no other guys do not apply no guys it's not there's no more room for i got enough of that you got enough of that it's a lot of tight that need filling yeah that that's uh that's mind

boggling to me so i you know i'm i'm the kind of guy so i've i've only ever slept with my wife that's cool yeah that is great you know so it's it's like you know, I'm, I'm the kind of guy, so I've, I've only ever slept with my wife. That's cool. Yeah. That is great. You know, so it's, it's like, you know, to like understand like behind the window, like, you know, that's, you know what, that would have been, that would have been a game changer for me. God damn it, man.

That would have been awesome. Are you a home service business owner struggling to get your time back? Maybe you're feeling like you have to do everything yourself, or maybe you aren't able to break through that certain revenue plateau. You feel like owning your business isn't quite what you thought it would be. Am I right? I understand you more than you know. I've launched many businesses throughout my life, and I was lucky enough to have built multiple businesses that scaled to two nine-figure exits. But more importantly, I have had even more businesses fail. Why would that be more important?

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I can help you take your business to the next level, making you a next level home pro. Speaking of which, speaking of which, is there anything like in that regard that you regret? Like, I mean, are you, are you happy with the way that life's gone? In which part? Just family, relationships. Is there a struggle at any point there? I mean, there's always going to be struggle but i don't think there's any regrets i think i would do it pretty much exactly the same you know what i mean if i could make it hurt her less than absolutely yeah for sure like you know because like even her here now like my my baby mom is like a couple rooms down like you know what i mean like

we're all we're all cool we're all still like you know what i mean like we're all we're all cool we're all still together you know what i mean it's still yeah we still chill like i was at soundcheck yesterday and my wife and my baby moms was at dinner yeah just chilling you know what i mean like so it's like i i know there are obstacles and there's things that we had to grow up into there's a lot of immature things i did obviously because you know maybe don't give a 19 year old 40 million dollars i don't know you know what i mean so at what point at what point did you make 40 million bucks i was 19 years old you all all that came all at once yeah like how how was that all paid out uh publishing it was a lot of publishing so like big bonuses big sign yeah yeah

so they knew they were gonna obviously recoup super fast. So I asked for the dot. I just shot for the moon, and they were like, okay, cool. I was like, oh, I should have asked for more then. So that was all when you were 19? Yeah. Okay. So 19, 40 million bucks.

What I know, I mean, that ran dry at one point. That ran dry in nine years. It took me nine years to get rid of all that. Burn through all that? I had no idea. I ran dry in nine years. Took me nine years to get rid of all that. Burn through all that. I had no idea. So what year was this that you ran out? This was 2014. 2014.

It's gone. Yeah, 2014. I was like. Where did it all go? I have no idea. I have no idea. I kind of have some ideas, but, you know, we're in some court cases about that right now. Who's managing your money at this time?

One of my managers. Yeah. He's no longer with you? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So one of my managers was also my business manager. I had two managers that were working together. So they're taking all your money supposedly invest yeah you know I know I was I was frivolous but I mean you're swiping the card with the

expectation that's a crazy thing I don't have access to my money really I never had all this stuff for you until no so i had so i had my account and i had to call my manager to be like hey yo i want to buy this thing can you send me some money to my car and then that's how i got money i thought that's how it worked you're asking for permission to use my own money so they came and got me when i was 18 years old right so i'm thinking that's just how that works this must be big business stuff i didn't know about business back then so it's like yeah this must be how it works i didn't read contracts i don't give a about this give me money you know it's crazy so my my buddy can it you does uh he uh he was a like top six draft pick in the nfl i got 10 million bucks over like a period of three

years and uh same thing they set him up you know his manager was the same thing like he had to ask for permission because this whole industry because they frame it like this is how you we're gonna make sure you're gonna take care of you we're gonna make sure your money is safe so if you need money tell us how much you need we'll document it we'll make sure it's in the records all that is good and in the back they're like embezzling yeah you know i mean it's it's crazy but and so so at this and in the back they're like embezzling yeah you know what i mean it's it's crazy but and so so at this point you like you don't even know what you're paying your manager no dude that's crazy of course not that's crazy so you have no idea who's on your

payroll for how much yeah like they they they own 50 of my independent label i didn't even know that like a while until like one of my producers wanted to get off the label and I was like, all right, go ahead. And he was like, no, I need to go ahead from both sides. Both sides of what?

It was like, well, your manager's on 50% of your company. They got to let me go too. And I'm like, what? You're telling me they essentially had

a 50% equity stake in you. Yeah. That's wild. So everything everything they were taking 50 cents on the dollar yeah oh my goodness yeah and legally right yeah i mean because you because you signed the contract they made the record label for me wow they were like you're registered you're good we signed everything for you you're good so of the 40 they took 20 at least the very least at least that's before embezzlement and that was you know

and that and that was fair to me because I thought that's how it worked. Right. You know what I mean? And you weren't taught any different. That's the only knowledge I had. What did your dad do growing up? He was a public speaker. He worked at the city electric thing.

It was called city electric. I don't know if that was a money laundering place. They didn't focus group that name at all. It was like, he ran the electricity for the city. It's all for all of us. I mean, not a lot of money. Oh, no. Oh, God.

He was an entrepreneur as well. Okay. I mean, he hustled. He hustled. So we had a food truck. He had two restaurants. Oh, wow. Like, we ran it for a while.

But also, people were stealing from the restaurant. So I mean, it wasn't like you grew up, you didn't grow up in the projects or anything. Oh no, no, no. Oh no, we grew up in five bedroom homes. Oh nice. Like, but these are homes that like my dad built these, like with his hands.

Okay. Like I made a- I mean, he was a hustler. I thought I was gonna have a career in breaking drywall. I was like, it was always around building materials. And my dad was building our house. We lived in a trailer. We lived in a mobile home and he built a house in front of the mobile home. Really? Because we had a lot of front yard and he was like, that's enough for a house. Okay, we can build a house right there. And he built a five

bedroom house in front of our mobile home. That's amazing. And then sold the trailer. Sold the mobile home. And then we had a giant backyard. That's amazing. And then sold the mobile home. And then we had a giant backyard. That's awesome. I was like, yeah, we were good. We were good. Yeah, you grew up. But he wasn't like educating you on like finance or how to take care of your money. Oh no, he was stressed. He was done. He was like, look, I'm learning myself. Y'all just watch me, I guess. Watch me as much as you can because we're not doing great but i'm holding on we were struggling a bunch you know what i mean but the little things that he did to make it okay like we want a house i didn't learn how to build a house like it shouldn't be that hard how much people do it i think so it was just like you know he he did little things to really you know make our lives really

cool you know what i mean we always had new cars he always had cadillacs we got the we got like the first like new suburbans that was always out like we kept switching suburbs i don't know where he was getting money from it was crazy so so at what point i know you had like set up like dj equipment in your room when you're 10 years old yeah was that when you're like man i love this stuff or at what point i had no so what happened was is he brought me or my mom brought me a keyboard from a flea market it was one of them stupid keyboards that had like the bongos on the top and it was very dumb it It was like a little Casio. And my dad's favorite song was Lift Every Voice and Sing.

And and Change Gonna Come. So I learned how to play the top line of Lift Every Voice and Sing on keyboard. And my dad, it was just it was like the first time he was like proud proud of me because again we didn't show so right no so that was like the first time he was like that's you did really good son i'm like oh so he he gave you a compliment yeah i was like that was like the first compliment yeah i'm like i want to do this all the time now i need to learn more so good learn more songs so i was uh he found a keyboard on the side of the road that looked like it's still working. It did.

It had ants in it. The screen turns on. There's ants crawling across the screen. But, you know, I hooked it up to my brother's stereo system. And any song that came on the radio, I would learn the bass line and things like that. And I learned how bass lines work. And like, oh oh that don't even go with this song but it's somehow doing it and i started kind of teaching myself music theory somehow yeah well you know so it it kind of so it was natural it came like you had something in you that was like

yeah connected absolutely and just matching matching tones and notes with the songs that was on the radio and having to learn a song yeah in that time span that it was on the radio i can't rewind i can't pause i gotta learn it while it's happening that song goes off that's the last time i hear that song for a little bit did you ever have like cassette player that you were like recorded stuff and then yeah i didn't do that i did not do that yeah because i mean we grew up the same time right yeah so you know the technique receiver that was it right that was it so you know i learned you know how to do balance and and just hook up that stuff and and bring it out to the speakers and man it was uh it was a game changer so that that it really helped me out and i think i i think i kind of learned music theory on my own.

That's pretty cool. Weird. And so, you know, obviously you're credited for like being like essentially the king of auto-tune, right? Like the guy that like really made it and push it famous and you collabed with all kinds of different artists on it or whatnot. So like, at what point did you say like, I want to do this or I'm going to make this my thing? Man, that like, I wanna do this or I'm gonna make this my thing? Man, that was, I think I was 16.

Oh really? 16 because I- That's when you like found out- That's when I dove into it. I was doing it again at 10 and like my dad started buying me equipment when I was 11. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because he was like, oh, you might be good at this shit.

You know what I mean? So when I was 10, I would go to a friend's house. You know, Daryl Johnson. He was like the only person in the neighborhood with a studio. And I would go there. And obviously, he didn't have time to have a 10-year-old over there trying to do music. All my shit was whack. And, you know, he would have me kind of play music for him and do hooks and stuff like that.

But anything I would try to do on my own was terrible. And, you know, understandable. Like, get the fuck out of my studio, dude. I'm not about to sit here. And it was in his bedroom. So, you know, he had a girlfriend. He was like, I'm not about to have this kid in here. It's my bedroom.

You get the fuck out of here, kid. So one time it like hurt me real bad because I thought I had a good idea. And I was like, I really wanted to, I really wanted to record. And he was like, just, you can't, no, you're going to feel like doing that right now, which is understandable. Again, it was trash. And I went home crying and my dad was like, what are you crying about? And I told him what happened.

He was like, oh, well, I'm going to get you you your own studio then you're good you just give me a little bit again I don't know where he was getting money from but he'd come up with it he just he just he got me a false text eight track recorder uh kawaii workstation keyboard and after that I was I just I went crazy you know what i mean i got one of my old bob barker microphones right and i was i just recorded every day just back to back non-stop i learned how to work that in like two days and i was just on it man and my dad knew a lot of people in the music industry so he would have people come by and like give me mixing tips and stuff like that like all my mixes were straight up and down they're like you need to pan this and do that so it was it was a lot of

learning going on but yeah man about 16 because i know i was 16 because the first time i laid down a song where i was like this sounds like a real song the first line was i ain't nothing but 16 and i that's the only part i remember that but i i do know that that was the moment i was like this sounds like a real song so and that was an auto-tune no it wasn't no auto-tune came yeah what point man that was oh my god that was probably 2003 or four. And so you were what, 19 at that point? 20, 1920 at that point?

What time is it? Yeah, because you were born in 84, 2003, 19, yeah? Yeah, yeah, so it was like, that was right when I kind of got on it. Okay, and was there like a a specific decision had you already signed your record label at this point no okay no and was there a decision they're like i'm gonna own this this is gonna be my thing or was it it just worked and i was like this sounds cool i had no intentions on that being my thing at all yeah i just wanted to hear it because i heard it on a jennifer lopez

song okay and once i heard that it was on one of those mix CDs, those legal mix CDs, the Now, that's what I call them, music CDs. It was on one of those. It was If You Have My Love. I love the Now CDs, dude. Oh, my God. Those were it back then.

Man, and the crazy circle to that is that that's where I got auto-tuned from, and I ended up on three of those. Really? Like, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, that's cool. So I heard it jennifer lopez song and then i just went on a search for it i was like i don't know what that is called but i want to do that because she only did it for like two seconds and i was like i want to try to do that for a whole song but i don't

know what it's called i got a bunch of cracked dvds from my friends of plugins and stuff and i just kept going through kept going through i went through every plugin and every preset of every plugin that took me six days to go through all this to find it because they're these are writable dvds right there's a lot of data on these at that time right you know what i mean not a gig but it felt like it you know what i mean so a lot of data to go through and presets are what the two kilobytes like this i went through every preset of every plug-in i had and i i came up on autotune and i found it i was like oh my god i finally found it on the sixth day and did you love was it love for sight you're like oh absolutely i was ready to use it the second oh my god like i got right on it i

redid a black street song because teddy riley was using the talk box and i thought that was pretty much what it was but right it wasn't that it was just auto-tune man you know to find out that it had been available since 1997. i was like oh i've missed the train on this so i didn't think i was discovering anything right it was just something new for me that i wanted to explore but But I had no intentions on that being my thing. It just worked because my weird-ass voice already came. But at that point, nobody was really owning it, right? Yeah.

But it was like everybody thought TalkBox was auto-tuned. Okay. Because it was kind of the same thing. Everybody was comparing me to Roger Troutman, Peter Frampton. It was a lot like it was just like what i don't know what any of that is i don't i don't i don't i don't own a talk box or anything so once i came up on it when all the comparisons started getting made i was like oh i guess kind of yeah you know but again that was not not my intentions at all it

just kind of worked and it was just, I'm not doing it for anything. I just like doing it now. It's like singing in the shower. You know what I mean? Like, you don't, if you sing, if you sound good in the shower, you know when you get in the shower, oh man, I'm happy. A good sing, you put on some music now. Maybe you weren't doing it with music before,

but now you put on music and so you can sing in the shower because I sound really good in here. And now that's your thing. That's your happy time in the morning. when i found auto turn i was like man i'd like how this sounds i want to i want to keep doing it because i like how it sounds not because i think it's going to sell or it's going to make some hits like that i just like how this sounds so much and that's where everybody else got caught up in it too right because they started doing it they did it was like hey what's that t-pain be using and then the engineer would put it on the studio and they're like oh i sound good let's do this let's

do it we need to do a song like this wait let me hit record let me see what i can and then they get caught up in and they keep doing it so what so were there a point in your career that you ever regretted going all in on on auto never never felt you know because cause I, I, I read some things. I don't know. You can tell me whether, whether they're true or not. It was like after, uh, uh, what's his name? Uh, Jay-Z came out. Yeah. Right. Jay-Z came out and he did the death of auto tune song or whatnot. Yeah. No, I didn't, I didn't regret it. Did that hit, did that hurt you when he called you out? Financially, hell yeah. If Jay-Z said something, that's it.

You know what I mean? If he said, stop wearing this brand of clothes, nobody's wearing that brand of clothes anymore. You know what I mean? So if Jay-Z came out and said anything, you know what I mean? I don't know. I'm not saying he did it intentionally

or anything like that. I mean, he called you out by name. He said y'all T-painting too much. So which means he was talking about other people doing what I'm doing too much. So I understood that part, but it was like, nobody's making it that far. Right. You know what I mean? Nobody's making it that far into the song.

So it's like, everybody got the message. The name of the song is Death of Auto-Tune. Jay-Z says Death of auto-tune it's all jay-z says death of anything it's over so that crushed your career it crushed and here here's the really messed up part right before he dropped that song i was on so many songs on the radio me and my managers decided like yo we need to take a break. You need to stop doing features. You need to stop putting out music. You're on too much. There's just too much T-Pain out there.

Too much T-Pain out there. And we're like, you know what? Let's stop. And I was going at such a pace to where it was just continuous T-Pain all the time. And then we decided to stop and then there was no T-Pain for a while. And then Jay-Z so it's basically like

so it looked like he stopped you from yeah you know what i mean so that was the worst part of it but regrets no no regret there no not at all so you know i mean is there because clearly you have an incredible voice you know i i watched all your Masked Singer. The Masked Singer, yeah, yeah. I mean, and man, the range of your vocals on all variety of music was impressive. Thank you, man. Impressive to say the least, right? And so was there any regret that you never pursued that? No, no.

I mean, because I would have just been another singer. Yeah. You know what I mean? I would have been another voice in those. So your brand, you love the... Right. You know what I mean? That's why I don't regret it because it set me apart.

Like, you know what I mean? That's, you know, I like that. So no regrets, but do you wish that more people knew about how incredible of a vocalist you are? It would have been regardless. They would have found something bad. You know what I mean? They don't care. They don't credible of a vocal it would have been it would have been regardless they would have found something bad you know right they don't care they don't really care it's the fact that i was distinguishable you know what i mean i think that's what matters the most to me because even if i would have came out with my voice and sang songs like that they would have they would have found something yeah there's always going to be a hater it's gonna find something to not

like about me like no i love the fact that you owned a brand, right? Because I think anybody that goes and does anything incredible, they do something that's distinguishable, recognizable. Absolutely. You know, I mean, let's talk about Donald Trump, right? Yeah. The most ridiculous hairdo in the world. And he's the only one that got it. But he's the only one that got it, and he's stuck to it, man.

Right. He's not going to stop it. He's not going to stop it. He he's not gonna stop and he knows because he knows he's like this is my brand this is what i got my brand absolutely regardless of regardless of what happens to it he can lose some of it uh he's gonna keep it exactly how it is right yeah yeah that's just yeah yeah you gotta you gotta know you gotta know what your brand is yeah and he probably hates his hair oh he probably hates it all and probably his orange skin man he probably hates both he hates all that but he's like the people like this man i keep doing it so yeah i mean look man you know people are gonna hate you for something especially if you're successful that's that's always the case and i've learned that from being successful and then i've learned that from not

being successful then being successful and then not successful again and then successful again you you get to see these patterns like when you when you succeed and fail within one career you get to see where people's parameters are you get to see like if i'm down everybody's so cool yeah everybody's chilling you're like all right you're one of us now and you get successful again it's like what makes you so good and everything like is it like wait what i was just one of you and they're like nope you got money now again. So now. Yeah. Yeah. My buddy Alex says, you know, people cheer for an underdog until they become. Right.

Right. Outperform. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that and that, you know, it only makes it only makes sense to people that don't plan on being successful. Right. You know, it's, envy can only turn into motivation

if you plan on doing something with that envy. You know what I mean? So it's like, if you see somebody that's successful, you can either say, I hate that guy or I want to be like that guy.

It's not, there's no in between. There's no, there's no, good for him. I'm just go back to what I'm doing, there's no in between. There's no, there's no good for him. I'm just go back to what I'm doing. There's no envy there. There's nothing, there's nothing to act on, but if you act on it, it's either envy or motivation. That's, that's just the two things that you got. And I don't, I don't get the middle. So, so you've been able to bounce back from losing it all, right? Like what are the biggest like principles and takeaways so you've been able to bounce back from losing it all yeah right like what are

the biggest like principles and takeaways that you've been able to recognize you're like oh this is what how i can make it back this is how i can get back the first thing you got to recognize is nobody's going to help you nobody's going to help you because everybody's got their own problems everybody's struggling even rich people yeah rich people just have different more expensive bills more money more more money more problems it's not it's not you know everybody's like a you know they obviously everybody hates when celebrities or rich people say that money doesn't solve problems but it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't and we're only saying that because we found out yeah because we thought that's what was going to happen and then when we got it it was like oh we got i still i still got issues yeah still got issues my parents still aren't saying they love me

brother died couldn't fix that with money right like money's not gonna fix those major things obviously it'll make you comfortable yeah it'll make you comfortable to make you it'll it'll calm your bills down people won't be calling your house renter center won't be showing up like you're good you're good at those aspects but problems money won't solve your problems money will solve your financial issues right but they won't solve your problems absolutely that's that's that's the major thing that people need to figure out and we we're only saying, we're not trying to keep anybody from getting money. Just absolutely don't get money. Please be rich.

We want everybody to be rich. Be rich, but when you get there, do not think that your life is just gonna be great. And I wish I would've had somebody tell me that. Nobody told me that. It was just like, bro, you get money, it's gonna be cars clothes jewelry everything's gonna be fine you're gonna be set that's that's the whole thing set for life that's a whole that's

everybody says that i'm gonna be set for life oh boy in for a rude surprise rude awakening bro yeah I can set you on fire right now and you'll be flame retarded for the rest of your life in the next five minutes. That's the rest of your life. There's nothing that prepares us for, you know, obviously the

unknown is a scary place. For sure. And this is an unknown place, but there's been so much exposure and there's been exposure of the good parts of what we do. Yeah. So people think that's the whole thing. Obviously, even normal blue collar middle class people, like they put their best parts of themselves on Instagram. They're showing you the bad parts of themselves.

And that's when you get those TikToks of and people crying like i can't i can't do this but if you go in there tick tock earlier they're living the best life possible absolutely but when it got to a point to where they can't hit that breaking point now it's like oh my god okay i'm gonna tell you guys the truth i'm okay my life it's just like you gotta look at all that man you can't look at the right now you got to look at everything around you know the time and and it hurts to say but sometimes it sucks you know it's it's uh even last night oh my god man i i you know i got on stage last night it was packed out packed out so many people uh even the club was like this is the most people we've had in there we had to open an extra area oh wow just to let more people in you

know uh and when i got off stage everybody cleared out it was empty i mean the club was empty and my wife was like all those people were here for you and And I'm like, yeah, now they're gone. Just empty. Just empty. Right. And now I get to. Such a. Now I get to go to sleep. Like I just provided up to a night of 4 a.m. for entertainment for these people.

And now I just get to go back in my room and just. Back to yourself. Play Call of Duty. And whatever your problems are. I just play Call of Duty and I got to call my mom in of Duty. And whatever your problems are. I just play Call of Duty and I gotta call my mom in the morning. Like now it's over. Yeah.

That's it. Yeah. Back to work. Like that's not it. The culmination never is really fulfilling. Yeah. It's always just like, I had a great time performing.

I love performing. That's like one of my favorite parts of the whole career is just like having a party with people. But when you a party with people you get to mingle you get to talk and get to meet new people and like that it's just like nope deep pain give me what i need and then i'm going to go enjoy the rest of my life and it's you go back to this huge empty room you know it's just like man all those people came for me and now they're gone well pain dude i i appreciate appreciate your time appreciate the the words of words of wisdom and just sharing the stories wisdom is a strong word i mean just the truth and the vulnerability of the ups and downs.

I mean, what last words of encouragement would you give to the entrepreneur that's trying to make it out there right now? Talk. Speak. Say the weird thing. Just do it. Just go. You know what? When you did ask me about regrets, that is a regret.

Not talking. Not saying what I was actually thinking. You know, we've been portrayed as this generation that has anxiety when somebody asks us, do we want more ketchup? We can't talk to them. we can't ask for directions and like that it's talk say what you feel say it say it out loud even if it's to yourself say it we all know those those times where we're like i had this idea but now saying it out loud it's stupid so just say it that that weird thing you're thinking get out get it uncomfortable say it to the person that you want to say it to get that out in the past because man if you when

you when you when you say out loud it creates problems in the past when you hold then create problems in the future that's good you know what i mean that's good brother i appreciate it thank you so much for your time until next time gang