During the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, T-Pain was one of the most popular artists in hip-hop. Not only was he releasing original tracks, with songs like “I’m Sprung”, “Bartender”, and “Can’t Believe It”, but he was also frequently featured on tracks alongside other major artists. One of his most successful singles was “Low”, the Flo Rida song. His work has been critically acclaimed and commercially successful, but he hasn’t been nearly as popular in recent years as he has been in the past. What has T-Pain been doing in 2017? Is T-Pain still making music? In this article, I plan on writing about what the artist did to achieve success while also providing his fans with an update as to what he has been up to now. Without further ado, let’s catch up with this hip-hop star.
T-Pain’s Early Life and Career
T-Pain, also known by his birth name of Faheem Najm, was born in September of 1985 in Tallahassee, Florida. As you may have been able to guess by his name, Faheem was raised in a Muslim household while he lived in Tallahassee. However, he didn’t particularly connect with the religion. Faheem was attracted to music at a very young age, however. His family was friends with Ben Tankard, a gospel jazz artist and music producer. When Faheem was just a little kid, Tankard allowed him into the studio and let him fiddle with some of the music equipment. By the time Najm was ten years old, he had completely committed himself to music. He had a keyboard, a four-track recorder, and a beat machine that he planned on using to produce music for himself. Faheem had a rougher childhood, and his stage name “T-Pain” actually means “Tallahassee Pain”. Needless to say, his feelings toward the city aren’t the best.
T-Pain’s second album Epiphany was released in 2007. Fitting along with the name, Epiphany was kind of a break through for Faheem in terms of success. It sold over 170,000 units in its first week, which led to it topping the Billboard 200. The success of the album could be partially credited to the release of “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)”, Epiphany‘s lead single. “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” did extraordinarily well for itself, topping the Hot 100. This was T-Pain’s first chart topping single although it certainly wouldn’t be his last. Shortly after the release of this album, Najm shifted his focus to collaborating with other artists. During this time period, he would have high-profile collaborations with artists like Chris Brown, Flo Rida, DJ Khaled, Bow Wow, and Kanye West. His collaboration with Kanye on the track “Good Life” would end up winning a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song.
T-Pain at the Height of his Career
Needless to say, T-Pain was known as a successful musical artist by this point in his career. He had worked alongside enough big names to be considered a big name on his own. Faheem released his third album Thr33 Ringz in 2008. His popularity would allow him to perform in major television programs like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Saturday Night Live, and the CMT Music Awards.
In December of 2011, after a significant break, T-Pain released the album rEVOLVEr. One of the most popular songs to come from this album was “5 O’Clock”, a song that featured Lily Allen and Wiz Khalifa. The song peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200, and it was also successful in countries like Belgium, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. After another break, T-Pain announced in 2013 that he was working on his fifth studio album, entitled Stoicville. Around this time, he also went and released T-Pain Presents Happy Hour, a greatest hits compilation album. In the years to come, he would release a couple of songs like “Coming Home” (a free download meant to promote Stoicville), “Make That Shit Work” with Juicy J, and “Officially Yours”. Stoicville had yet to release, but Faheem promised his fans that the album was still on its way. So, was that true? Has the album come out yet?
What’s T-Pain Doing Now in 2018 – Recent Updates