Source: Prince Williams / Getty
Ever since blowing up in the mid 00’s, T-Pain‘s got a lot of hate and whatnot for making Auto-Tune a thing in Hip-Hop & R&B music (See Jay-Z’s “Death Of Auto-Tune”), but the criticism even drove the man to depression.
In an exclusive clip from Netflix’s upcoming series This Is Pop, the “Buy U A Drank” singer revealed that it was none other than R&B legend Usher Raymond who drove him into that dark and lonely place. Detailing the moment it happened, a visibly disturbed Teddy Penderazzdown recalled how a flight attendant woke him from his slumber while he was on his way to the 2013 BET Awards. After informing him that Usher would like to chop it up with him in the back.
After making his way back there and exchanging pleasantries, Pain remembered Usher bluntly telling him, “Man, you kind of f*cked up music.”
That must’ve been the crazy Timberland boot to the chest for someone who began the Auto-Tune craze that made him a millionaire.
“I didn’t understand. Usher was my friend,” T-Pain explained. Usher then proceeded to throw a bit more salt in the wound by saying, “Nah man, you really f*cked up music for real R&B singers.”
Usher must’ve felt he was gonna lose that BET Award to someone who used Auto-Tune (Miguel won best R&B singer) for him to just put that out there like that.
The comment made T-Pain question himself and his impact on music saying “Is he right? Did I f*ck up music?” And 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.”
While many felt Pain might’ve messed up the game for real singers, it’s not his fault that everyone jumped on the Auto-Tune wave he Godfathered (no disrespect to Roger Troutman and the vocoder, though). Had everyone just left his lane alone, maybe he wouldn’t have gotten the kind of blowback he did at the time.
Still, the T-Pain made some dope ass records. If anything it was the top hats that we could’ve done without. Just sayin.’ Luckily the man was able to get out of that rut and can even poke fun at his Auto-Tune use these days in commercials and whatnot.
Check out the clip of the interview below and let us know your thoughts on the situation.
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
![Hip-Hop Wired Presents: CRT FRSH 4.23.21 [Playlist]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/hip-hop-wired-presents-crt-frsh-4-23-21-playlist-327x219.jpg)
