20 things you should know about T-Pain

T-Pain's first album Rappa Ternt Sanga was a spelling mistake? Want to know more about the soulful hip-hop artist, read on...

1. He isn't really called T-Pain
As would be expected of any sensible parents, Shasheem and Aliya Najm, an entrepreneur couple from Florida, didn't name their child painfully. The musician who would grow up into the superstar called T-Pain was called Faheem Najm at birth.

2. He started young
By the time he was ten, Faheem had already installed a keyboard, a four-track recorder and a beat machine in his bedroom and had started creating songs. They might not have been the best tracks in the world but it was a prodigious beginning.

3. His first band had a daft name
Owing to the fact that he wasn't old enough to know any better, Faheem started a band with the more musically inclined dudes in his neighbourhood and called it, of all things, Nappy Headz. Never the ones to let a silly collective get in the way, the Headz scored a minor chart hit in 2000 with "Robbery."

4. He was a label boss at seventeen
It was a measure of Faheem's foresight and his remarkable grasp of the rules of the game that by the time he was in junior high school, he had already started his own record label. Hard & B was the name and the teen talent began releasing many of the mix tapes that he had been creating, on this imprint.

5. His first success came via Akon
While he was making up his own rhymes, Faheem, who had, by now, taken to calling himself T-Pain, recorded "I'm Fucked Up," a version of "Locked Up," the debut single by Senegalese superstar Akon. The song became very popular in the Florida underground and announced the arrival of a hot new talent on the scene.

6. ...who also signed him to his label
Akon, realising the potential that lurked within the Pain, immediately signed him up on his label, Konvict Records and that is the place where T-Pain started his career in real earnest.

7. He's got Soul and Hip-Hop
T-Pain's debut single, "I'm Sprung" immediately set about destroying all the barriers that existed between hip-hop and classic soul. Characterised by a soaring chorus, handclaps, an acoustic guitar and block rocking beats generated from a Roland VS 808 groove box, "I'm Sprung" erased all the lines that existed between genres. It was a defining moment for contemporary popular music.

8. He was never very good at spelling
There have been people, who have twisted the English language into shapes that previously didn't exist. Slade and Prince have been great offenders and T-Pain demonstrated that he wasn't far behind when he titled his debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga. Everybody will be forgiven for not getting the fact that this new addition to the English lexicon stands for Rapper Turned Singer.

9. He's sold millions of ringtones
"I'm In Luv (Wit A Stripper)," in addition to its blatant disdain of the rules governing the Queen's tongue, was the second chart-busting single from Rappa Ternt Sanga. T-Pain made a remix for it featuring Twista, Pimp C, R Kelly and Paul Wall. The track was a huge smash across all mediums and it ended up selling more than five million ring tones.

10. Dancers love him
According to Mr. Pain, dancers of every stripe, especially exotic ones, have really taken to him after "I'm In Luv (Wit A Stripper)." He reckons that it is because of the fact that the song doesn't degrade strippers. "It's not the shake-that-ass song or 'Let's go in the backroom'," he says. "It's a song that appreciates strippers." Well, if you say so, Pain bloke.

11. He works with loads of people
The array of guests on T-Pain's debut album was staggering. There was Akon, Bonecrusher, YoungBloodZ, Styles P, Trickdaddy, Tay Dizm and Too Short. In addition to that, there were Rasheeda, Sleepy Brown and Cyco Black of Crime Mob who turned up to star in the video for "I'm Sprung."

12. And then some
If the celebrity turn out was slightly higher on the Pain's debut album, it went into serious overload during the time of Epiphany, the second record. There was Akon working the microphone, of course, but there was also Kardinal Offishall, Yung Joc, Shawnna, Cam and Jay Lyriq. Then there was the E-40 mob, Huey, Gorilla Zoe, UGK and Barndon T Jackson.

13. He's been known to salute MySpace
Like most artists who have started out with their careers in the new millennium, T-Pain has the utmost respect for the internet. He has released a song titled "What's Your MySpace?" and has uploaded "Can't Believe It" to his official MySpace and Facebook accounts.

14. He's an in-demand collaborator
Given his formidable musical talents, it was only going to be a matter of time before Faheem would be called in to guest on songs by other musicians. The man has appeared on R Kelly's "I'm A Flirt," Bow Wow's "Outta My System," "Baby Don't Go" by Fabulous, Chris Brown's "Kiss Kiss" and "Good Life" by Kanye West. Perhaps the most high-profile collaboration of Pain's career came about when he appeared on "Migrate," a charting single from Mariah Carey's album E=MC2.

15. He's got his own range of sunglasses
Being involved with fashion is more or less an unwritten hip-hop credo and in keeping with the tenet, the Pain has been wearing shades that have now become part of his visual identity. The man has a thing for Oakley eyewear and has worn the Oil Rig model so much that it has now come to be known as the T-Pain shade. In fact, so enamoured is he with his dark lenses that Pain often name-drops it in his songs. Listen to the remix of "Buy You A Drank" for proof.

16. He's been nominated for five grammys
It's a little incredible but inspite of his obviously great music and his unquestioned commercial success, the Pain has never been nominated for a Grammy for his own work. He has however, been nominated five times for his collaboration with Kanye West, Chris Brown and Akon. He won the award for West's "Good Life" in the Best Rap Song category in 2008.

17. And won tons of other awards
His not so enviable track record at the Grammys notwithstanding, the pained one has loads of other trophies to line up on his mantelpiece. They include a BET Award, 3 Teen Choice awards, a Vibe award for Song Of The Year for "Buy You A Drank" and 2 Ozone Music awards.

18. He's a huge auto-tune fan
In addition to various aspects of his music, T-Pain is most known for his robot-like vocals, which sound like someone singing through a vocoder but is actually the result of Auto-Tune, an audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies. The Auto Tune utilises a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances in real time. The technology was probably first used on Cher's big hit, "Believe."

19. He's got social sensibility
Inspite of the fact that the genre he represents has been dotted with a long history of violence and misogynistic behaviour, T-Pain is a man with his heart in the right place. It has been widely reported in the media that the man helped kick start the careers of Miami rappers Flo-Rida and 2 Pistols by making vocal cameos on their songs, "Low" and "She Got It." He also uses his song, "Suicide" to highlight the many ways in which the young are literally killing themselves. "Having sex without condoms, driving drunk, selling drugs, all that is suicide," explains Pain. "We do a lot of stupid stuff that has only one ending."

20. He's just released his third album
The very innovatively titled Th33 Ringz, T-Pain's third album is scheduled for release on September 30, the same day that the Pain was brought into this world. Not stepping away from tradition, the superstar has lined up another glittering array of partners to help him have fun with this one. They include Li'l Wayne, Busta Rhymes, Ludacris and Kanye West.