The Press Box - T-Pain, 'T-Wayne,' and the Birth of Auto-Tune (Ep. 312)

Episode Date: May 29, 2017

The Ringer's Micah Peters sits down with hip-hop pioneer T-Pain to discuss the impromptu release of 'T-Wayne,' a project with Lil Wayne dating back to 2009 (2:55), T-Pain's discovery of Auto-Tune (13:15), and how Auto-Tune creeped into mainstream hip-hop (17:15). Later, T-Pain shares his new and upcoming projects (30:48) and explains his new antisocial music mindset (34:35). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a special edition of the Channel 33 podcast. I'm Micah Peters. I'm a staff writer with The Ringer. This is a special edition. Yes, it is. It's a special edition. It's special.

Awesome. This is an occasion. You're T-Pain, everybody, so. Right. So, first thing I got to ask you about is, okay, so to set the table a little bit. Crazy introduction, by the way. That was amazing. Dan, okay, there's these two guys named Nick Joseph and Dan Rue, and they're both

from Baton Rouge. And they have this, they have this web series of just videos where they go on Instagram live and they mess with people. And Nick hypes Dan up while Dan dances and then usually steals something. Yeah, she was usually stealing something.

You know, just hijinks ensue. They came up a lot. Right. Yeah. I mean, did you just stumble across that on the internet and then decide to have them come on stage? My wife, she always, you know, she's a woman, so internet, I guess.

And, you know, she was stumbling across a lot of stuff. She was sending me links to all this stuff. And, I mean, I just fell in love with it instantly. Like, it wasn't, there was no question. It was just perfect. It was like the hip-hop pen and teller. So it was really dope because Dan don't talk. Like, you know, Nick do all the, you know, he called all the bullshit.

And then, man, it's just a perfect combination. So I fell in love with it, like, right away. Would you say that that's, like, your favorite thing on the Internet right now? Yes, right now, yes. What is your second favorite thing on the Internet? My second favorite thing on the Internet. man there's a new guy

I don't even know just when I see him he's just real hype he danced a lot and he does this a lot and it's just I can't remember his name he's tied with

Ha Ha Ha Davis Yeah the Bigfella guy Oh yeah Yeah yeah What we do a big fella We do him dickfella There's anybody that's just over the top With it

I'm all about it It's all about having fun And energy man You know Anybody that sit there and just like Have a picture and then they try to do what I would call the king of it. He's probably not the first person doing it, but the king of it is DC Youngfly.

Would they bring that ass here? Yep. And man, what's the other guy, Ryan? Sorry, for the listeners that don't know who DC Youngfly is. Yeah, that's a lot. There is this guy that used to be on Vine doing really funny things. Like, he'd be riding around the car with his friend and freestyle and then he'd play like he was day. on the steering wheel and then get back up and start freestyle again.

Then he made it to Wiling Out, so that was cool. You know what I'm saying? He's still on Wiling Out right now. He did, really did. He's doing pretty good. He's doing great. So, you know, Andy's got a couple of mixtapes out. Y'all check out DC Young Fly New mixtapes.

Pretty cool. Yeah. Speaking of new stuff. Oh yeah. You recently, finally, after 10 years, released the T. Wayne Project. Gang, gang, gang. And I got a little.

I got to know that if it was this like in, I mean, like, was, what prompted you to finally release the thing that was just languishing on your hard drive? Well, you got to think, man, it really wasn't just sitting there. I've been showing people that project for nine years. Like anybody that come to my house, you know, they always ask me about it. And, you know, I always, I'm like, I'm a hard drive right now. You want me to show you? And I go through the whole project.

And we had a bunch of songs, but a lot of them were. unfinished. So it would have turned out to be like my mixtape featuring Lil Wayne so I didn't put all of them out. I put the ones that we finished together on them. You know what I'm saying? Because the ones I had just my verse and then I was waiting on his verse or he ought to record his verse but he didn't send me his version of it and stuff like that. But I've been showing people this this project for nine years man and it got to the point where we didn't need to drop it back then. We should have but we you know it was T. T. P.ain and Wayne back in 09 like we didn't we weren't worried about missing money you know but man

the last person I showed was Smino mm and he came to the crib after his show in Atlanta and Smino was like bro yeah you got to put this out I was like I mean was supposed to put out long time ago he's like nah bro this this shit still sounds like right now and I'm like if you say so man I think about it and weirdly I had a drunk dream about it and then I woke up man I was like I called my manager I'm like y'all I'm about to put this T. Wayne project out man

he was like oh you should you should call everybody and do all this I'm like nah bro it's too late it's already on soundcloth it's already uploaded the soundclash right now sorry can't do anything about it he's like doesn't have cover art I was like no I guess

it was like let me get my guy pencil fingers they whipped it up real quick, I mean, in a day, whipped it up, pencil fingers. That's a, that's a hand-drawn cover. Like, a lot of people think that's digital, but that's a hand-drawn cover, and it was, I mean. Does pencil fingers have an Instagram handle? It's pencil fingers. It's just pencil fingers. Yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, it's, I mean, he actually made a time lapse of him doing it, so it was crazy, but, yeah, once we got the cover art, I was like, I'm going to make the link private, and he was like, Godspeed, bro.

But I just think it was just time. It was just time. It was a lost page that needed to be taped back in the book of hip hop. That was something that people had been begging for and asking for it. It just wasn't fair to keep that in a vault somewhere for no reason. We had it. We wasn't trying to improve it. We weren't going to make a new version of the songs.

So why not? Just, I mean, and plus with the situation that Wayne is in, man, I felt, you know, not that it's my business or anything like that, but I've been in that same situation where you've been stifled and handled wrongly by your label or, you know what I'm saying, your furnishing company or anything like that. And it's just, it's just not fair, man. So I felt like, like, come for me. I'll release Wayne music.

If y'all want to release Wayne music, I'll release Wayne music. Sure, come for me. I got absolutely zero to lose. Come for it. Whatever. So, yeah. Knowing about the situation that Little Wayne is in, everybody should know about this, but he's mired in the worst kind of label trouble

and has been for some time. He has, the carter five is yet to come out. It was supposed to come out years ago. What is your relationship with Wayne like right now, just if you don't know my asking? It's normal. You know what I'm saying? It's a normal thing.

Like, it's basically like everybody else. Like, we don't talk about the label stuff, anything like that, but it's like, it's a general and mutual dissonable. satisfaction. Like, we know it. Like, you know what I'm saying? That's like, if you know somebody's girl is cheating on them and they find out, you don't just be like, well, I've known for years. You just kind of like, man, that sucks. Like, you don't talk about it a lot. You just hit on a subject and that's the last time you talk about it. But, no, man, when me and Wayne get together,

it's never like a sad moment or anything like that. Or he's not depressed or anything like that. He's not feeling bad. He's a upbeat. He's, he's, normal wayne like you know i'm saying he's laughing he's doing his thing and he's still he's still doing music but i know what it feels like to feel like you're doing music for nothing because as much music as you're doing you got hundreds of songs and nothing's getting released you're like i'm doing this for i'm just doing it so i can listen to my own music back to back and you know it's it's it's not a satisfying feeling man so i feel like i feel like i I feel like I had a 5% liberation of like C5 or just Wayne in general, anything he wants

to release. It just, it sucks to be in that position and not be able to, he can release music. He can release music whenever he feels like it. He's not going to benefit from it. That's the problem. Just being in between a rock and a much harder rock. Right. And so it's not that he can't release music.

He can release music as much as he wants to, but the people that's going to be. benefit from him. He doesn't want him to benefit from him. And you know what I'm saying? And he's going to be one of the people that doesn't benefit from me. So that, that's just, it's not fair. I'd rather it stop doing music than to just release it for other people to benefit. Like, it's just not fair. So I feel that situation. That, that, that, that really had a big position in why I released the project. Yeah. Um, when, okay, so to bring it back to the T. tape actually. There are eight songs on it. One of them is a song called Listen to Me, which samples the oompa-lumpa song from Willie Walker. At the beginning of it,

you acknowledged that it had been done before, where you were referring to the backwoods, right? Yeah, absolutely. They did around the same time. And then once we recorded it, then a lot of people were saying, yo, you know, the backwoods is there that and I totally forgot. So I went back and recorded that part a couple days after we finished the song. And then, you know, it just wasn't the same. Had you heard the other instance of the oompa-o-o-unpa song, which is actually there was these dudes from Manchester that were called the Blackout Crew. And they had a song called romper pumper. Uh-oh.

Yeah. Is that? It was in 2009, too. But I mean, like, I mean, like, I had been digging around. Like, I dug around looking for it just to see if eight. anybody else had done it. That's crazy. Yeah, that was the other instance of it.

I mean, there's tons of samples. First of all, like, the music in Willie Walker, first of all, is just... Crazy. Out of this world. Seriously, the tunnel thing where they're on... When they're on the... With the Suss and Junk? And when they're floating up...

It is the creepiest song I've ever heard. It's a lot of creepy music. A lot of stuff that can be turned in. Like, if you gave A-Rab music two... days to come up with as many beats as he could off of just the one single Taco Factory movie, whole album, guaranteed. A rap music with an MPC, just give me an MPC and the DVD player, it's a rap. Yeah, but no, we, I mean, because we did that around the same time as the back was, and it was,

I mean, I had not even thought about it when I heard it, you know, was working with the business so much that we wasn't really paying attention to anybody else's music back then. The producer of the business, right? Right, right, right, right. Hennie and a... Yep, Hennie and the other one. Dob, yeah, D'A, yep, Don, die. Jesus Christ.

That was so much. Oh, my God. Yeah, man. So, yeah, no, but we just weren't paying attention to other people's music back then, man. And that's the craziest thing. You didn't have to. You know what I'm saying?

And the only way you would pay attention to somebody else's music is if it sounded the same. And you would get clowned if your music sounded like anybody else's. And that's what it's crazy about today. Like, that's no longer a thing. Like, you would literally get clowned. Like, why are you biting this man?

Why are you biting? Why are you biting? Bighting was a giant word a couple years ago, a few years ago. And it no longer exists. Due to the lack of gatekeepers and the fact that basically being able to take an idea and do something interesting with it is prized above having an original idea. Right. Okay. Absolutely.

And it's just, there's no separation anymore. So I feel like what we brought to the table was refreshing. You know what I'm saying? And the T. Wayne project felt like it was done right now. You know what I'm saying? But, I mean, back in 09, you didn't have to, you didn't want to step on anybody else's realm. You didn't want to do what anybody else is doing.

And that just made us even more strong. You know what I'm saying? Because we wanted to make a group project, but we were still two different artists. and it just felt amazing. Sounds like right now, minus the sidekick reference. Wayne definitely made a sidekick reference.

Hearing that again, because I had to go back and mix the records myself again, and just hearing that sidekick reference, that actually made me want a sidekick. Do you, do it? I seriously remember being... One person in this room that don't want a sidekick right now, I don't think there is.

I mean, like, I had an LG flip phone at the time that came out, and I wanted a sidekick more than anything else. Oh, my God. You know they made a smartphone version of the sidekick? No. Oh, you missed out. I definitely had that. Yeah, it flipped up.

You just, scream went right up. My God. Can you imagine if the iPhone did that? Oh, man. Flip-blit-up. Woo! That would be amazing. So, basically, the story with Autotum was that you were listening to,

a song by, was it, was it J-Lo or was it? It was Jennifer Lopez. It was J-Lo. And it was one song and you were just like, she can't be the only one that has a vocoder. Where can I get that exact thing? Absolutely. Absolutely.

It was a dark child remix of If You Had My Love. Shout out to Drake, I guess, now. So, yeah, but no, it was a dark child remix of If You Had My Love and I heard she used it for like two seconds. and I was like, that's exactly what I want to sound like. And I went on like a year and a half search for it. I didn't know what it was called, and I just went through every plug-in. I had so many hack plug-ins.

It was just out of this world. I had like a stack of CDs of just crack plug-ins. It was probably the best purchase I haven't made in my life because I just went through every plug-in. It was just a bunch of waves plug-ins, a bunch of Fab Filcher stuff. It was just all the new stuff, and then I walked right up on it. God damn auto tune. And boy, when I did it, because it was like a whole day

where I just gathered every crack plug-in that I had and I put it, I got one, like a three-second vocal thing, like just a clip, and I just kept that repeating and kept changing the plug-in that was on it. It just kept changing, kept changing it. That was the most annoying shit. I didn't want to hear that song for the rest of my life. And it was just, it never, it never came out.

It never came out. Never came out. And then I just, because I didn't want to, I didn't want to mix it, because I heard that one bar, so much from going through all those plug-ins, I was just done. But once I got to the auto-tune joint, I immediately remade Black Streets creep. And that was the end of it. Ever since I did that, oh, my God. Then I delve into it.

real heavy and start, you know, like studying it, seeing what every button does, and just turning every knob and stuff like that and just really got into it. So I really, really know how I went. And they keep adding buttons. So I got to keep redoing this process. But, no, I mean, it worked out, man. It was really good, man. And I feel like that time spent on it was well worth it for sure.

Kyle, can you play like the first? we're going to play one of his first hits, if you don't mind. This is a song called off of Rapper Tert Singer, excuse me, the first, the debut album, and this is called I'm in Love with the Stripper. Well, that's fun. That's always good.

Oh, boy. Are you transported like I'm transported? Um. Not to the club. No. I mean like that. I got to perform this a lot, so, you know. So you were talking about plug-ins, which plug-in did you use?

Like, is there a specific name for this one that you used on the song? I mean, like, what was the process when you went in this? The crazy thing was, on this, I didn't use it a lot. It's only on this part, and then after this it goes away. Yeah. Because you can actually sing. That's the way. So I only use it on a couple parts on stripper, and that's the crazy thing.

And, like, a lot of people don't know when I'm using it and when I'm not using it. So, you know, it's... It was Antares Auto Tune at the time, but now at this moment, I made my own product the T-Pain effect. Because when people were walking to the store, they wouldn't know the name of it, and they would just ask for, let me get the T-Pain effect. So I just made my own product call that, and when you go ask for that, grab my shit off the shelf. Ah, come on. So, going back to that time in, like, the late 2000s, a lot of different interesting things were happening.

And after you started using Autotune, people started to realize that, you know, if your voice wasn't there, Autotune could at least make you sound okay. Right. Right. In 2007, right before, like, after like the Drought series mixtapes and right before the Carter 3 came out,

Lil Wayne had like the series of leaks that might have been, ended up on the Carter 3, but for getting left on the cut in room floor. And there's one song called Prostitute Flage. Did he play that for you first? No. No, I mean, but the thing is, he didn't have to.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, it wasn't, like, I don't own the sound. Like, you know what I'm saying? I was just saying, like, didn't tell you for a year. But, no, he definitely didn't. But, I mean, the first person that really put auto tune on a, on a national level to where,

it's okay for everybody else to do it too. Like, like, like, because there's stuff, there's things now to where I think, like,

oh, I thought that was just that one person that was able to do that, but everybody's doing it. And then, like, it's stuff like that,

but when you find out that other people also can do it, then it's kind of fun to do, you do it in your song too. You know what I'm saying? One of those things is, that's the funnest thing to do right now.

Period. Like, like, oh my God, trying to kill that, bro. So, oh, he's talking about goosebumps.

Yeah, that was amazing. I love doing it. I do that in regular life. I don't even do it in my music. I just do it in regular life. This is an amazing song. Oh, so great. So stuff like that. But the person that really put into the play that like, hey, all the other artists, it's okay to use Autotune was Snoop. Oh, Sexual Eruption. He was the first one to use Autotune. He was the first other major artists to use Autotune. And then everybody was like, oh, man. That video is also crazy. best videos. I mean, like, the filter that he had on the, whatever it was, and it actually had the tube, in the key, in the key tar. Absolutely. Yeah, no, he, he went in. The velvet suit. It was a lot of velvet. Oh, my goodness. That was a lot of velvet. That was crazy.

Wait, just a blast before we go. So, yeah, that was before, that's what I'm saying, but that was before the car, the carter three and all the weeks happened in the prostitute. So, like by that time, Like it wasn't even a you got to check with teeth pain kind of thing anymore. You know what I'm saying? Before that, before Snoop did that and it was like He either got to have pain on this record or you got to ask him But when Snoop did it was like oh man brain ain't gonna do nothing just do it It's really turning that song by that time what prostitute happened. It was just like there it is Do you have any funny stories from those recording sessions just you and Wayne? Just one even.

The crazy thing there was, like, the most minimal interaction with this. Like, the only interaction we had while doing this, because we did it on the I.M. Music tour. We both had tour buses, and we both had studios on our tour bus. So I would literally do my verse, take it to his tour bus.

We'd have very minor interactions. Like, I'm doing my verse. Get this back to him when you can. And then by the end of the show, like, right after the show, he'll record his verse, bring it back to my bus. Hey, I'm diving this buyers.

And damn it when you're down, John. And then, cool. I'll take it back. Like, it was literally just us going back and forth on each other buses. Like, he goes and we were still like burning CDs back then. So it was like, we burned so many fucking CDs. Yeah. It's just CDs everywhere.

So it was like minimal interactions. 2007, 2008. That was like, I mean, when Epiphany came out, I had it. I, like, it was, I think my brother bought it at Walmart. And then I ripped it. because I was broke. There you know. That makes that.

Wasn't that crazy at Walmart was like to spot the CDs for a minute though? Yeah. But the thing is is that like

my favorite song of that project was the one that was only on the Japan retail version. It was the, it was calm the fuck down.

Calm the fuck down. Play that right quick. This is an incredible song. Yeah, man. There's a lot of different versions of this album. Wait, how come this one

never made it on the U.S. version? They were the only ones that asked for it. It was just one of them things to where, you know, because you got to have bonus songs for each store in the U.S. So Target was asking for three bonus songs. Walmart asked a thing. So I was burnt out of bonus songs by the time we start releasing International.

And they was like, we just need one more song. And I was like, when they asked me for that, I had just recorded it. So I was like, I just, here you go. I don't have anything else. I literally have every song I don't record it with his album. So I had just recorded that. And now, that was just me just in the studio just recording. But, yeah, as soon as they called, I didn't, like,

because at that time, I didn't even know that you had to have different versions of the album. So anytime somebody says Epiphany is like the classic album, I'm like, which one? I don't know what you're talking about. So, yeah. Yeah, so late 2008. I mean, the thing that was interesting with your relationship is the fact that everybody wanted you, either one of you, on their song at that point of time. And it was just kind of like building up to where, I mean, like, Three Rings was basically a victory lap because it was just like, you know, and I'm going to just put on this top hat and ride my segue around and just be me. Like, this is me, here I am.

Right. Absolutely. And then DOA happens. What was, and you got on stage when you performed it at. Yeah. And, um, summer jam, summer jam. Summer Jam. Yeah.

What was like, did you just, were just like, no, I'm going to go just stand on stage. No, there was, the whole thing was planned out. The whole thing was planned out. I don't think anybody told Jay what was going on because it was surprised to him, but we all know how crazy security is for Jay. Like, what is just going to get close to Jay? Like, what? Like, what?

You can't just walk up on Jay? You can't just walk up on Jay, man. No, the whole thing was playing out. Everybody knew, I think everybody knew about him. And it's just surprising. And I think that was the only miscommunication that happened throughout that whole thing. Where were you at when you first heard the song? Where was I?

It was home. It was home just watching videos, and it premiered it on something. I came one of them shows that don't exist anymore. It premiered it, and yeah. I mean, once I heard it, I was like, Thank God. Like, please stop everybody from using it. And then everybody was like, no, no, he's talking about you.

And I'm like, wait, no, he's not. He says my name and the thing. And he was like, yeah, but he's like putting you in with that. I was like, no, come on, guys. Like, I was never a believer in the fact that that song was about me because he said, y'all tea painting too much. And a lot of people told me he was talking about Diddy. And I was like, Diddy did one happen with that.

Like, that's not even, nobody knows who he was talking about. Jay Z don't do that shit he didn't want anybody else to do it. Bottom line, Jay Z didn't think it was cool, it's not cool. That's it's the bottom line. Like rappers singing on hooks, stop. Jay Z will make it stop.

Trust me. So I was never a firm believing that he was talking about me or whatever. But like, you know what I'm saying? Like that whole night, like I was talking to everybody, I asked him, can he come out on my set? You know what I'm saying? And so, they were like, he's already coming out on Jesus. So I'm like, cool, I just come out there with him.

And it was like, ooh. So it happened. I don't think anybody told him. And you know, I know people don't like surprise. When I'm doing a show, I don't like people just walking up on the stage. So I'm like, you mess with, I got a certain thing I do on these certain parts. Just don't be in this area when I do that. And I, you know, so it was good.

I mean, it was cool with me. I don't think it killed anything. I don't think it really hurt anything. I think it made me more famous. to be totally honest. Because, I mean, like, you've, it's kind of, you ushered in, like, a new industry standard, kind of, like, unwittingly, maybe, I mean, but, I mean. Definitely didn't mean to, but.

Does it, does it, like, does it feel like vindication? Does it feel like? No, no, no, no, no, no. No, it definitely doesn't feel like that. It feels like, it feels like any originator of anything is going to get the most flag because you bring it in something new that nobody. understands. First went through the wall. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. Like you're going to

you're definitely going to feel the pain first. You're running through a brick wall to let everybody else in and absolutely you're going to feel the most pain. Everybody else is going to run through the hole. And, you know, that's how everything works, man. I'm pretty sure first person to introduce hooping stick to the world was like

come on, dude, put that shit down. Like, you know what you're doing? Running through the streets, pushing the hoop with a stick. Go bail some hay, man. You look stupid. So, you know, like, man, they were saying, you know, just how they say technology is like stopping people from communicating with each other and stuff. They said the same thing about newspapers back in the days. Like, it's going to be whatever originates out of nowhere and whatever's a new concept, and that's what's going to get the most hating. Because people fear they don't understand and they don't understand anything new.

So I get it. It just took people time to get used to it, because now it's just over the top bottle tone. Everybody. Find me a song without it now. That would be easier. Speaking of, like, you know, that, and there was the new, you had the T-Mexes that were going on during this period of time in between albums. Yeah. And my favorite one so far is the one that you did was Saw Baby called Pull Up with a Stick.

Let. So tomorrow with a couple cabos in the home. We're trying that one, go strong. We all in a nuffin' boy, shit. I said, like the teen, had that nappy boy, dick. I'm on that nap and boy. Talk a toy whip. Park that motherfucker sideways and like a chopper rip.

I might just put a little with the scene. Yep. Um, this, the teammates were. The fade game is crazy. The fade game is so good. It was so great, don't let. Um. So, I'm not exactly clear when they started and when they stopped, but it was around the

same time that you were doing your press rounds for Stoicville. Right. I have to really, really, really fucking like a song for me to do a team mix to it. And I haven't really liked the song in a long time. So, you know what I'm saying? When I baby came out with this, I was like, I was not, I can't stop singing this. It's just got to happen. You know what I'm saying?

Did you listen to the rest of the Sanders mixtape? No. No, because it's flooding in Atlanta. Like, pull up with the stick is nonstop in Atlanta. So I don't think it got forced on me, but, I mean, when I heard it like the second time, and then my wife sung it, and I was like, well, obviously, I got to go now. And then I was like, babe, you can't just be listening to this song without me. You can only listen to my version, babe.

So, yeah, but no, it was cool, man. I mean, like I said, I have to really like a song. And it was just a period of time that where songs were just more T-mixable? I don't even know. It's a word now. So that. But, like,

the situation has to be right. The song has to be mega-dope. Like, I was going to do a T-mix of Mask Off. And then when I start looking for, you know, start calling labels about the instrumental and stuff like that in the archipela, then they were like, hey, you know Kenj is doing one. I was like, okay, never mind.

I'm good. That's better. Don't worry about it. So yeah, you know, I mean, it's just circumstances, man. But tea mixes, team mixes don't have a schedule. You know what I'm saying? It's not like I'm, you know, everybody always say, man, you need to do more tea mixes. I like, they need to do more songs I like.

So it's not a particular time where I do tea mixes, but you were saying that I was doing them around Storaville joint. Go ahead. Right. So that was around the time that you did. that you did the NPR Tiny Desk, which was beautiful, I got to say. What's happened from then to now has the concept of, I know what the concept of Stoakville is, but could you explain it for the listeners? The concept of Stoicville is, I got it from my youngest son.

He's on the autism spectrum. So when he doesn't want to deal with things and when he doesn't want to, you know, be a part of a function of something, like he'll cover his ears, close his eyes, and just whisk off into this whole other world that I can only imagine is what Stoicville is for me. You know what I'm saying? So it's just a world to where nobody pays attention to anybody. Nobody's in anybody. Pockets, nobody's worrying about who's making what music, nobody's worth.

It's just no worries, just no cares. And that world that he goes in when he closed it, when he closed it. he plugs his ears and closes his eyes, it has to be pure bliss. And I think that's what Stoicville is to me. Okay. Yeah. And the, the, I mean, so at midnight tonight, you have a new song with Young M.A. Yeah.

Called FBGM. You got it. That's good. That's good. Is that leading into the Stoatville project? I mean, just, you know, to be frank, I don't want to put Stoyville out yet. You know what I'm saying? Just because of the situation I'm in, like, I mean, I don't know if I can be, can I, is that something I can touch on?

I'm not, basically. I don't want to put you in a bind. No, no, no, no, I mean, because, you know, people say I talk too much because I'll tell the truth all the time. Like, this is weird. Telling the truth, you talk too much. That's not. Jesus Christ. But now, I mean, with the situation I'm in,

Stoartville wouldn't be handled correctly. You know what I'm saying? It wouldn't be your vision for what Stoerville is? No. No. So we're releasing another project called Oblivion. And a lot of stuff is produced by Dray Moon, and it's, you know, it's not a mixtape.

It's really an album, you know what I'm saying? This is an album that's getting pushed by RCA. So it's oblivion, but after oblivion, Stoicville will come into fruition. But I just don't want to bring Stoicville into the world because it's such an important project for me. It has to be handled exactly how I see it. And with my current situation and my current deal, I don't think it will be. So I'd rather hold off a lot of game developers.

They always say a bad game. a bad game is bad. A delayed game is eventually good. You know what I'm saying? So I take that same approach with my albums. Like I'd rather just make you wait and actually have a good product instead of succumbing to the pressure

and just releasing just out of nowhere and then for no reason and it just does nothing. You know, so I'd rather delay what I'm doing and actually develop everything right. So you won't have any complaints instead of just trying to appease to you just wanting to hear something and then you say,

oh, that's not what I was talking about. I don't want to do that. It's very dumb. Very understandable. That's a stupid move. What would be worse is if I take this much time and it's still whack. That'd be way worse.

That'd be way worse. Oh, God, it'd be terrible. With oblivion coming out and Stovo, hopefully, in the future, are, what is the, you know what, let me just ask this straight up. Go ahead. What are the, what is the collaboration you most want to do? And keep in mind that I'm also kind of anticipating that this will be the weirdest one that I've ever heard.

I don't know. Man, I don't think there's one I want to do, man. I'm not going to lie. Yeah. Because I've gone through so many collaborations and I've done so many things. So many things for so other people. For so many people. And have, you know, a lot of people have.

But there's been a lot of people that I wanted to return the favor that hadn't. And then, you know, years have gone by where I'm always seeing people in the airport like, yo, let's work, blah blah blah. And like, yeah, and then they don't answer the phone anymore. And people that have, you know, I've worked with before that have now moved on, like, you know, you're not hot right now, so I'm not going to work with you right now. But now they're calling again because they see me releasing stuff and things are happening. And it's just, it's just, I'm done with other people right now.

You know what I'm saying? Like when I was down and when I was, you know what I'm saying, when I was just chilling and I took a break from the music, like nobody was hitting me up. You know what I'm saying? Nobody was checking to see what was going on. Nobody was checking to see what was going on. Nobody, you know what I'm saying. Everybody knew, you know, within the industry, everybody knew what I was doing. Nobody was really checking for it, though.

So I'm like, and I get back on, and when I start doing music again, when I get out of this mindset that I'm in, nobody call me. Nobody call me. If you do call me, I'm going to pick up the phone. and I'm gonna make a personal voicemail message just for you. I'm gonna be on the phone. Like that like an archer thing. You're like real quick. Glad you see, that's what I'm saying.

Hello. The person you're trying to call is not fucking with you right now. Remember when you did this back in 07? Yeah, he's still thinking about that. You suck as a person, go find new friends. I don't know what it's right. So, I ain't, be totally honest, man, I ain't fucking with nobody right now.

I'm worried about me, my kids, my wife, out of your boy. To end this on a lighter note. Sometimes. Sometimes. It could go anyway. I don't know. We'll see. After what just happened.

There is, so one of the features on I'm in love with the stripper was the feature on, I'm a love with the strip was Mike Jones. Have you seen the lawyer commercial that he was in that he was in the Super Bowl? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Have you all seen that? I mean, like, okay, just

to... Just to real quick? Just a real quick. It's 30 seconds. We'll just... We'll just... If you got Mike Jones, and if you're down in the situation, tell me and all you guys do is Carmago and March.

Mark Jones? Oh. Mark Jones? Who? Mark Jones. He don't get your right. Whatever. That's right, Columbus, Georgia.

If you need legal help, Mark Jones is your lawyer. Tell them, Mike. Hey, I already told you. I'm going to destroy it. I need to do this time. Boom, I love it. Boom, boom. Boom, boom.

Boom. Boom. Boom. And, it's just... Boom, boom, indeed. It's just... Boom, boom, indeed. It is.

It really is. I love it, man. So great. Did you see it, like, when it came on during the Super Bowl, or was it? Yes. Yes, that was- What was your reaction when you first saw it? My reaction when I first saw it, it would nothing to do with Mike Jones.

It was just the sheer quality difference between the Super Bowl and that commercial was out of hand. The editing was out of control. It was just, I mean, it was, I don't know, man, it was definitely, it was seizure-inducing. The editing was definitely seizure-induced. It was just all over the back. But it was just a quality. I mean, when people try to say shit, like, Mike Jones fell out because they got to do this shit.

Like, look at, look at, you try to compare that to what Shaq is doing. Like, Shaq is mega-rich. Shack is out of this world rich. And still hitting that for a great car show and you can get online, go to the terror sales. If Shaq can do that, Mike Jones can do that. Like, you know what I'm saying?

Like, it ain't no such thing. And I tell this to people all the time. When people see me doing, like, I do little ads for fancy.com. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, I do little stuff on the side commercial for this person. I said, I grab this person thing and say, hey, this is a great product. And people are like, oh, you falling off if you're doing commercials. Why?

All of a sudden is there a such thing as too much money? Who don't want extra money for holding up a product and saying, Hey, everybody go buy this? Sweet, there's $10,000. What? Yes! Yes, I'll do that. How long do you need me?

Five minutes? Of course I'll do that. Hell yeah. Run it up. Run it up. Absolutely. But people see that kind of stuff and be like, oh, you fell off. You need money.

I don't need money. I want money. Who in this room? Who in the world would say no to say, yo, all you got to do, hold up this weird fucking thing. I know you don't smoke weed, but it's a, it's a dope-ass pipe and just say, hey, this pipe is dope. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. That's it. This pipe is dope.

You should go buy this pipe. This is what it does. I'll let you point. There's a 30-second commercial. Here's $10,000. Absolutely. I'm going to do that. That's all there is.

Yeah, the manager's gonna call me after this. Never mind. I was gonna say the, I was gonna talk about the Freaknake Net cartoon, because that's just, that was a lot happening. There was a lot of years of cover in this whole thing. I don't think we, I don't think either one of us had enough time to really cover what we wanted to.

Oh well. We just asked that all three. Oh, shit. T-Pain, I would like to thank you for joining me for this special edition of the Channel Thurban 333 podcasts. I'm Michael Peters. I'm a staff writer with the ringer. This is T. Payne. Michael Tyler.

Thank you for joining us. Word to your mothers. Word to your mother. You're multiple mothers.