Culture

T-Pain Hypocritically Tells Other Artists to Stop Using Auto-Tune

by Jarrett Martineau | November 19, 2008 at 01:26 pm

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Auto-Tune era be gone!

It should have never, ever begun.

And I blame Cher for starting it.

And I blame T-Pain for using it.

And I blame Akon, Diddy and Kanye for perpaintuating it.

Need further evidence?

Now, please, please put the plug-in down and trying something novel: learn how to sing...in tune!

At the end of the "Can't Believe It" remix, T-Pain says that Auto-Tune is almost up. What? Why would Pain, whose Thr33 Ringz debuts at #4 on next week's Billboard albums sales chart, extinguish his signature sound now?

"Not for me," Pain clarified, "for everybody else." The singer — who told DJ Skee in a separate interview that artists such as Ron Browz have used the Auto-Tune effect poorly — told MTV News that his biters need to pay up. Hey, if Diddy can collaborate with Pain and pay him for using the Auto-Tune, so can you other guys.

"I gave T-Pain one point on my [upcoming] album for using the Auto-Tune," Diddy revealed on Sunday night during "Total Finale Live."

"Sign the papers," advised Pain, who also worked on his friend Kanye West's 808's & Heartbreak. "Diddy actually gave me royalties on this album just for using Auto-Tune. He signed the contract and everything. If I can do that with Diddy, somebody else better be signing something. It's Diddy. He didn't have to involve me at all. ... I'm writing and producing on his album, and he gave me extra royalties on top of that for using something I just brought back."

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Jordan Yerman

at 13:42 on November 19th, 2008

If Shane MacGowan can sing in his own voice-- and own it-- then nobody else has any excuse.

Roro33 (not verified)

at 15:34 on November 20th, 2008

T-pain shouldn't really be blamed, he was the one who popularized it, but he can actually sing without the auto-tune. He just chooses not to, because it's given him a new style. But the rest of the biters, especially Kanye, he was a genius of a rapper, I don't like this new change

A Dose (not verified)

at 20:09 on February 15th, 2009

Ok this pisses me off, cause I use auto-tune and its not time for it to go out. I dont see it ever going out of style. First of all Pain yes you helped make auto-tune popular but Cher and Willa Ford and other artists where using it way before you homie. Second T-Pain didnt invent it so he has no right to say that he can only use it. I like T-Pain but damn he needs to stop complaining.