T-Pain Fans Outraged with Usher After Rapper Reveals Depression Origins
T-Pain #T-Pain
T-Pain has said he fell into a four-year depression after fellow singer Usher accused him of having a ruinous effect on the music industry through his use of Auto-Tune.
Singer and rapper T-Pain enjoyed success with a string of hits, including “I’m Sprung” and “I’m ‘n Luv (Wit a Stripper),” from his 2005 debut album “Rapper Ternt Singer.”
And throughout his chart domination, he became known for his use of Auto-Tune, an audio processor initially intended to correct off-key vocals, though it has also been used in more recent years to distort a singing voice.
And T-Pain, real name Faheem Rasheed Najm, has revealed in the new Netflix series This Is Pop that fellow singer Usher’s quip about his effect on the music industry plunged him into a deep depression.
“Usher was my friend,” he said, per Entertainment Weekly. “I really respect Usher. And he said, ‘I’m gonna tell you something, man. You kinda f***ed up music.'”
Going on to reveal that he initially took Usher’s comment as a joke, he added: “And then he was like, ‘Yeah man you really f***ed up music for real singers.
“I was like, ‘What did I do? I came out and I used Auto-Tune.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, you f***ed it up.’ I’m like, ‘But I used it, I didn’t tell everybody else to start using it.'”
He continued: “That is the very moment, and I don’t even think I realized this for a long time, but that’s the very moment that started a four-year depression for me.”
T-Pain’s revelation sparked an outpouring of outrage from fans on Twitter, with some on the micro-blogging platform taking Usher to task for having used Auto-Tune himself.
“Wait So You Mean To Tell Me Usher Told T-Pain He F***ed Up Music Using Autotune……Then Used Autotune On ‘OMG’???” @1DJFirstClass wrote.
“This absolutely breaks my heart,” said @xandradurham. “I just put on T-Pain when I was driving around and running errands today. How DARE anyone say he ruined music when he did nothing but give us banger after banger.”
“Usher telling T-Pain he ruined music when he was twerking with Pitbull and Will I Am is funny as hell,” tweeted @big_business_.
Said @BriMalandro: “The fact that everyone who came at T-Pain for using auto-tune ended up using it afterwards is just another lesson on how innovation works.”
Meanwhile, @Benayamovic wrote: “The thing cretins don’t understand is that, auto tune is a correction tool, BUT it can (in some cases) enhance a person’s vocals especially when they can sing very well. T-Pain is an amazing singer without auto tune. Whoever doesn’t recognize that is daft!”
T-Pain, who won the first season of The Masked Singer, appears in one of eight episodes of This Is Pop, which looks back on some of music’s biggest moments.
The series, which was released on June 22, will also feature interviews with Shania Twain, ABBA’S Benny Andersson, Chuck D, Babyface, and members of Boys II Men, Backstreet Boys, Blur, among others.
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