T-Pain says he battled 4 years of depression after Usher said he ‘f—ed up music’ by using Auto-Tune
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T-Pain. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
T-Pain reveals in the Netflix series “This Is Pop” that Usher called him out about using Auto-Tune.
“He said, ‘I’m gonna tell you something, man. You kinda f‑‑‑ed up music,'” T-Pain said.
“That’s the very moment that started a four-year depression for me,” the artist said.
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Auto-Tune made T-Pain a hitmaker, but also led to a dark period in his life.
The rapper-producer revealed in Netflix’s upcoming series “This Is Pop” that he suffered from depression for four years after Usher told him that he “f—ed up music.”
“Usher was my friend. I really respect Usher. And he said, ‘I’m gonna tell you something, man. You kinda f‑‑‑ed up music,'” T-Pain said in a clip of the show that was released by Entertainment Weekly on Monday.
T-Pain said that he chuckled when Usher told him that, but then realized the singer was serious.
“He was like, ‘Yeah man you really f‑‑‑ed up music for real singers,'” T-Pain said. “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.'”
T-Pain 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.”
Usher. Noam Galai/Getty Images
A representative for Usher didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
T-Pain’s use of pitch correction, which, when used to the extreme, delivers very distinct vocal sounds, made him a top recording artist and producer overnight with hits like Flo Rida’s “Low” and Kanye West’s “Good Life.”
But it also led to a slew of other artists using the style.
The backlash of pitch editing, with T-Pain being the face of the production style, was swift and even led to the 2009 Jay-Z diss track “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune).”
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This is not the first time T-Pain has spoken out about battling depression. For a 2014 story in The New Yorker, the artist talked about how the backlash against his music made him feel.
“People are, like, ‘You’re rich!’ What’re you so worried about?’ ” he said. “And I’m, like, money ain’t the issue here. Yeah, I can buy s—. But I want people to like me, too! God damn!”
“This Is Pop,” which launches on Netflix Tuesday, is an eight-part series highlighting untold stories from the likes of Shania Twain, Chuck D, Babyface, Boys II Men, Backstreet Boys, Blur, and more.
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