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Do y’all remember when singer/songwriter and producer T-Pain made an appearance on the Netflix docuseries This Is Pop and recalled how he was on a flight when he was woken up to meet with none other than R&B icon Usher on the plane only to have Usher tell him about how he “kinda f***ed up music” with his signature use of auto-tune in his songs, and how that sent him into a depression?
I mean, it was kind of a punk move. Even if you do believe T-Pain’s use of the audio plug-in he made famous was the beginning of the end of mainstream music—which…meh, that’s debatable—you have to admit that Usher being a music legend and going out of his way to ambush an up and coming artist on a flight to tell him that he and his digital voice box are trash was more than a bit harsh. I mean, nobody told Usher he “kinda f***ed up” making it rain when news broke that he was allegedly out here throwing around fake money at the strip club.
Fortunately, all of that is behind the two recording artists who reunited on an Atlanta stage Sunday for an event that will be featured in a new documentary produced by comedian Dave Chappelle, according to Complex.
“I love you, bro,” T-Pain told Usher on stage. “I’m telling you, we ain’t going through nothing, bro. We ain’t going through a goddamn thing. It’s all love. In a time when we’re divided the most, we need to be together the most. I love you, bro. I’m never not gonna love you, bro, trust me.”
Complex noted that while T-Pain claimed he had never spoken to Usher about the incident he talked about in the Netflix series, Usher said otherwise during a Billboard interview back in August.
“I’m happy that T-Pain said something—I’m not sure if it was before or after our actual conversation, after I heard what was said,” Usher said. “It was very hurtful to know that he had experienced that kind of hardship in life. I wouldn’t wish that on any person. Private conversations for me have always been intended to uplift. But when or if people get pieces of it, they can always have some other interpretation. But we’ve spoken since and we’re good.”
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter much what Usher feels T-Pain interpreted wrong or if they ever had a private, in-person conversation about the altercation at all—it’s just nice to see that the two music veterans who each had their eras when they were arguably running the game have buried the unpleasantries and are able to share a stage in the here and now.
This is a good look.
