🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
He's known for his autotune-enhanced vocals, but T-Pain's "real voice" is stunning the internet.
The singer-songwriter—real name Faheem Rasheed Najm—is credited with popularizing the use of autotune as a creative tool, rather than its common use of making subpar vocalists sound better.
The hip-hop star uses the technology to generate distinctive sounds, scoring a number of hits including "I'm Sprung" and "I'm 'n Luv (Wit a Stripper)." However, footage of the 39-year-old singing live is now wowing people online.
T-Pain shared a clip of him covering David Allan Coe's "Tennessee Whiskey" to TikTok on Thursday. His soulful rendition of the country song quickly went viral, receiving over 12 million views and overwhelming praise from followers.
"Ooooh t pain can saaaaaaannggggg," said Kia.
"Whole body chills...." wrote Kinnison Lockedout.
"I need a T Pain Album of slow country songs," said Cly4e.
"T pain never needed auto tune, auto tune needed T pain," said Taylor Made.
Troy Butler agreed, writing: "The man who mastered auto tune, was the man who needed it least."
"People sleep on how talented pain really is," said Steven Wrather, while FrescaSucks2 said: "The appreciation that T Pain is finally getting is definitely a positive thing I needed in 2023."
Newsweek has reached out to T-pain for comment via email.
T-Pain released a full album of covers, titled On Top of the Covers, in March. The record includes versions of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come," and Sam Smith's "Stay with Me"—all recorded using his natural voice.
"This covers album has been years in the making. I started recording this right after I won The Masked Singer," the Grammy winner said in a statement.
"These songs are not what you'd expect when you hear that T-Pain is doing a covers album and that is what I think is cool about it."
His take on "Tennessee Whiskey" is also featured on the album, although T-Pain is not the first to tackle the track. The song was originally recorded by country star David Allan Coe in 1981 and has been reimagined by several artists since, including George Jones and Chris Stapleton.
In 2017, Usher accused T-Pain of having a harmful effect on the music industry by popularizing autotune.
The 45-year-old claimed that the pitch-correcting software had "f***ed up music for real singers," causing T-Pain to fall into a four-year bout of depression.
Addressing the R&B singer's remarks in 2021, T-Pain told Entertainment Weekly: "Usher was my friend. I really respect Usher. And he said, 'I'm gonna tell you something, man. You kinda f***ed up music.'
"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."
In 2019, the VMA nominee proved the doubters wrong by winning season 2 of The Masked Singer. The reality TV show sees celebrities disguised in weird and wonderful costumes as they sing for a panel of judges, with the best vocalist taking home the trophy.
Performing as "Monster," T-Pain said the competition gave him the chance to showcase his vocal abilities.
"I didn't have a chance to come into the game with my natural voice" he explained. "This helped me get my voice out there even more."
T-Pain isn't the only musician to amaze listeners with his vocal range. A video of Michael Jackson using his "natural voice" recently went viral, shocking users on X—formerly Twitter.
Filmed in 1997, the clip shows a then-38-year-old Jackson performing "In the Closet" during a concert in Munich, Germany. The late star's signature high-pitched singing voice suddenly drops to a deeper, more severe tone, which fans suspect was the King of Pop's true register.
About the writer
Sophie is a Newsweek Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in Lincoln, UK. Her focus is reporting on film and ... Read more