In hindsight, the signs were there. Vintage arcade games are proudly displayed in their 2008 episode of MTV Cribs; the 2011 album inspired by steampunk aesthetics; the impulsive commission of a $400,000 chain meme reading “BIG ASS CHAIN” (which is currently on loan to the American Museum of Natural History for an upcoming exhibit on hip-hop jewelry). But it isn't until I enter the basement of T-Pain's suburban Atlanta home: a neon-lit bunker with a main gaming station the size of a movie theater and a separate game room with doors. soundproofed (“for screaming and shit.”) and separate areas for Atari, PlayStation, Tekken, Sega and SNES, where it is completely assimilated. The man whose voice defined late-2000s party music is an unapologetic, card-carrying nerd.
“I've been trying to tell people for a decade!” says the 39-year-old singer with a booming laugh, strolling around the game room in sweatpants and slippers. “No one wanted to listen.” Ten years ago, few would have known that the artist who seemed to write hits in his sleep regularly logged on to Twitch to play Skyrim with like-minded gamers, or that he had decked out his Hit Factory studio in Miami with an entire stage. for late night Guitar Hero sessions. (“Every time an artist comes to the studio, I don't give a damn what you're talking about; he grabs this guitar and meets me in the booth,” he says, pantomiming Pantera-style riffs.)
Back then, flying your geek flag in plain sight wasn't compatible with being the voice behind the buoyant, world-conquering records that have accompanied nearly two decades of bottle-service nightclubs, professional sports broadcasts, and correspondents' dinners in the White House, at least not according to the powers that be. “I was never able to show that side of me because the management considered it unattractive. So instead of playing video games, we would go to the Dolphins game,” T-Pain recalls, his always cheerful voice tinged with just a hint of regret. “But I thought what he wanted to do was the coolest thing in the world.”
Read the full digital cover here.
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Image credit: Andrew Hetherington
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Image credit: Andrew Hetherington
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Image credit: Andrew Hetherington
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T-Pain photographed by Andrew Hetherington on April 3, 2024 outside Atlanta, GA.
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