June 23, 2022 • 34 mins
This artist is known for his use of Auto-Tune and pushing the boundaries of music. As a child, T-Pain knew he wanted to leave his hometown of Tallahassee to pursue his musical talents. He eventually discovered Auto-Tune and created a remix of Akon’s “Locked Up”, dubbed “F***ed Up”, which led to Akon recognizing T-Pain’s potential. T-Pain pursued his music career and came out with his first single, “I’m Sprung” which became a #1 hit. Critics thought that T-Pain’s signature Auto-Tune sound was a gimmick, however they were proved wrong when the single “Buy You a Drank” shot to #1. T-Pain marched to his own tune and what felt good to him, a genre he calls “Hard & B”. Now, he’s a star with four Billboard top 10 singles and his own show “T-Pain’s School of Business”. He even proved his natural singing ability by winning The Masked Singer and performing an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. T-Pain continues to represent his genre defining sound and has shaped the direction of pop music, all while building his legacy. Watch Behind the Music now on Paramount+.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's an R and B renegade, the man behind the
most recognizable sound of his generation. But t Paine's road
to success was paved with personal anguish. As a teenager,
he was betrayed by the one person he thought he
could trust. He struggled for years to make his mark
on an industry that rejected him, until one phone call
(00:21):
changed his life. Te Pain never looked back and climbed
to the top of the charts, creating hits with everyone
from Lil Wayne to Britney Spears. Now R and d's
Wild Child has it all, fame, fortune, love, and the
most unconventional of marriages. For the first time, the kid
(00:42):
from Tallahassee opens up about his unlikely journey to the top.
This is te Pain, the story behind the music. It's
December two thousand eleven, and Te Pain is back home
in Tallahassee, Florida with his wife Amber alone, after buying
(01:04):
back the house she grew up in. He's visiting the
property for the first time in years. Every dream I've
had for the last like eight months has taken place
in this house. It was so much to what I
called the sight. He like, what are these dreams? Man?
She said? It's just God, let you know, to not
forget where you came from and what's gone now. I
(01:29):
have sex right here all the time, pull my car
from over here to right here. I don't want anybody
to have my house. I don't know. It was like
a sense of pride. I guess I told everybody that
I was stay in this house when I made it,
and that's what I'm doing, not literally staying in it,
buying it, but it's still mine. Oh manner and something
(01:58):
like that. Oh holy crap. Tea pain was born for him.
Rashid Najum in Tallahassee, Florida, on September. One of five children,
he grew up in a middle class, close knit Muslim family,
(02:18):
but as a shy and unusual child, he always felt
like an outcast in school. That's how it was kind
of terrible. I don't treated that well. And it's cool
about the kids. I used to get picked on a
whole lot, fat chubby tubby. They would make me try
to do push ups. How did not address smell? That crap?
Every day? I would wear the same clothes for like
three weeks. The kids and teeth used to call and
(02:41):
repeat ton and I never knew what that meant, and
finally one day I asked him, I said, what does
that mean? They say, oh, here repeace, the same clothes
every day. Young for him and his family were an anomaly,
a stable unit in a neighborhood that was otherwise a
sea of poverty and broken homes. I was the only
kid in my neighborhood that I had both bars. We
(03:02):
was a strong middle class family. I had a very
powerful job. My wife was working with the school board,
so it was a very powerful to income family. We
were entrepreneurs. We used to own a restaurant. We were
mission oriented. In his spare time, Shahid Nasham worked with
neighborhood kids, teaching them an alternative to a life of
(03:24):
drugs and crime. Young for him naturally looked up to
his father. They were very tight. They always was together.
I used to have a youth program, Homeboys two Men,
and he was one of my prominent members and the youngest.
You believe what his daddy was killing him. My dad
(03:45):
taught me you gotta know yourself first before you can
say anything about anybody else, because if you know how
you feel when you go through things, that's exactly how
everybody else feels he's a super smart. She had also
shared with his son his love of music, and with
his boy was eight, gave him an important gift. My
dad found a keyboard on the side of the road.
(04:07):
And my dad was a salvaging kind of guy, so
he was like, this looks like it still works. He
bought it in, plug it up, and it worked. Then
bout a week later, to my amazement, he said, Daddy,
I know how to play your favorite song. I see,
you don't even know what my favorite song yet he see,
and he played live for every voice and sing the
(04:27):
Black national anthem, WHOA Got a little something here for him?
Spent hours in his room listening to the radio, teaching
himself to play along by year, and quickly realized his
passion was also a gift. I would see different parts
of the music. I would see a whole song, and
(04:47):
I would literally see the parts that I'm hearing and
just come apart. It would kind of weir me out.
But I didn't talk to anybody about it. I didn't
say anything about it bigging. I thought everybody couldn't do it.
I thought everybody saw that. I thought that's how you
get music done by saying it first and then doing it.
But Fahim's father soon bought him a bigger keyboard and
(05:09):
a four track recorder. The twelve year old began writing
and producing his own music, transforming his bedroom into a studio.
It would become his sanctuary as he still faced ridicule
and taunts at school. That was definitely my father tude,
and just lock myself in my room and thank that
radio up with the speakers were from the head and
(05:29):
and just play those base lines. I would take my
anger out like that. I would just played base lines
to music and I would calm me down. That would
make me forget about everything that I haven't there there,
let's forget. By the time he reached eighth grade, Faheim's
father made a bold decision. He pulled his son out
(05:50):
of school. Found He said, I make a deal with
you home school. You can do your music, but you
got to get to education. And once ize don't fit out.
So I removed him, getting me out of his damn goes.
I'll go home and recall I thought I was worried
about all day. I just wanted to do music. I
(06:12):
wanted to be the biggest, the biggest thing out to
Tai by the fall of n precocious thirteen year old
name for he Nauseum had a single minded goal to
become a rap star. Once I set my mind on
something that hasn't happened, it has to go down. Trapped
(06:33):
in the depressed surroundings of his hometown, for he looked
at hip hop as his only way out. So we
took on the moniker t Pain with the T standing
for Tallahassee to rep where he came from and to
remind him where he ultimately wanted to go. See. Pain
wasn't came from the pain and struggling on trying to
(06:53):
get out of tallah AzID. I think you have to
have a certain push, you have to really want to
leave as you don't. Then dum Te Pain spent the
majority of his time in his makeshift bedroom studio. It
wasn't long before words spread about his fly set up
(07:14):
and MCS came knocking on his door. The moment I
started getting friends when everybody found out I did me was.
I hadn't been the studios before, but it's like this
home studio just different. You know, his work ethic with
the music, and he like said his imagination, it's crazy
te Pain, along with his brother Rashid and five other
local mcs, formed a rap collective they called the nappy Heads,
(07:36):
and while Paine was the youngest member, he wrote and
produced most of the material. I would describe the nap
Head sign as revolutionary. The nappy heads first breakthrough it
was in two thousand two on a bootleg track called Robbery,
with t Pain literally robbing the beat from someone else's
song making it his own. Robert took off like nobody's business.
(08:00):
It was kaya my nick, my back. We just made
a hoodenburg another. At the time, nobody really was doing
b jacks like that to that extent. And then on
it really turned into this huge thing where the neighborhood
knew us then all the time, as inne us in
Florida and Georgia's and Carolina's and then it just started
(08:21):
spreading and reading. With his father managing the group, sixteen
year old Cheap Pain and the Nappi ed's get the
stage what touring throughout Florida and the greater Southeast. Yeah,
it's your boy playing to the Pandoras down representing old
eight mile old to the fuller, don't We did at
(08:43):
least two hundred and seventy shows within a year and
a half. We were real hard and we tried to
master on crap, cheap pains. Single minded focus left little
time for a social life. But that all changed the
moment he laid eyes on Amber Wyatt. I met Amber
(09:05):
December seventh, two thousand one. This was at her sister's
birthday party and I was producing her sister. She's beautiful,
the most beautiful girl I've seen in my life. That's wrong,
look at that. See as soon as I saw him,
I was like my husband, and everybody was like, who's
(09:28):
wrong with you? And the whole time, I'm so nervous.
I got the camera on. Beautiful, really beautiful. The camera
I'm carrying, I have it on, but I haven't pointing
at me, so I don't have to look at her.
I'm like filming myself having a conversation with her, so
I don't have to look at her because I'm so nervous.
And I gave him a hug and I didn't want
(09:49):
to let go. Amber walks up and kisses me. Fireworks
all over the plane. She's all over the plans in
my mind. At the end of the night, we were
telling each other we were going to get married. As
te Paine and Amber embarked on a meaningful relationship, another
was dissolving before his eyes after his father allegedly cheated
(10:12):
with several group He's on the Road. Payne's mom walked out,
and the seventeen year old shouldered the blame for his
now broken family. I say it was my fault. If
I would have never done any of this. My dad
wouldn't have been on the road to get those women
for my mom to find out. Even now, I can't
(10:33):
put that out of my head. I really want it,
but I just can't find any other logic that would
have made that appen. Shahid, not jam also took the
break up very hard. The family scattered, and te pain
and his father found themselves alone in their once vibrant home.
I was a family man until all of a sudden,
(10:54):
be without a family hit. He started getting depressed. He's
start going to real depressed. The maintenance of the house
started going downhill, and his dad was in his room
a lot of the time with the door closed. Shad's
behavior grew more erratic by the day, and then in
the winter of two thousand two, he hit rock bottom.
(11:17):
And what spiraled into one of the most terrifying experiences
of Tethane's life. I hear him cocking a gun in
his room and he just keeps cocking it, and then
he stops cocking. He goes, yeah, he's scared now. And
I'm like, oh God, I don't know what's going on.
(11:38):
I can tell that he's really mad at something. He's like, yeah,
what you're gonna do now, what you're gonna do now?
And he came running back in the studio and I
was like, what's going on? And he's like, my dad
is holding a gun. He's just telling me there was
little tiny men coming out of the bed and he
was kind of hallucinating, and he said somebody was messing
with the window. Oh my mom, And I said, mom,
(12:02):
dad has been yelling at me, saying somebody on his bed.
I told me that his father had a problem. I
felt like he needed to know because it was an adult,
A deep, dark family secret had finally come to light,
one that had been carefully hidden from the teenager for years.
That's when my mom told me that's my dad had
(12:24):
been on cocaine for a really long time and come
to find out that's why we ran out of money,
while Shahid Nadum denies that he ever had a drug problem.
For Tea Paying, who had always looked up to his father,
the news was stunning. I was terrible, little hell. I't
t him for one. I didn't believe my mom. I
(12:48):
just hung up on her. It was impossible for him
to believe because it was his father and here it was.
You know, he was falling victim of the same things
he had taught him not to do. So fighting withdrew
to him is very devastated. It was like, why isn't
anybody telling me what's going on? And he just felt
(13:09):
kind of like an outcast. Everybody knew by me. I
had no idea. That's the moment I stopped believing everything.
Ever that everybody I don't believing him again. Anything is
that coming up? Te Pain makes a bold move, and
later a baby girl provides inspiration. When behind the Music
(13:32):
continues By the winner of two thousand two, seventeen year
old Tea Pain's dreams of rap superstardom were stuck in neutral.
His group, the Nappy Heads, were well known in the
South and had attracted plenty of interest from record labels,
(13:52):
but Paine and his Tallahassee crew had yet to strike
a deal. He was getting very streaty with the music
because it would seem like everything would be going really
good and they were almost there. They would have record
deal offers and then it would just all fall apart,
and it kept happening over and over. Not it has
(14:15):
made no money. We probably got like a hundred bucks
every show with a piece, but it was so many
of us. We had to w all that money. You know,
when my dad was a manager, so he would get
the biggest gut. He took my money and his money,
but you know, God knows what he was doing with
his money. T Pain had reason to be skeptical. He
had recently been told that his father had a nasty,
(14:35):
for long drug habit, and now Pain felt trapped. When
my mom left, he started bringing girls to the house
and started bringing other people to the house, and I
knew for sure it was gonna go gain. It just
started agatting weird. A lot of times, peopleuld go live
in his car because he could listen to his music
in there, and that was his escape from all the
(14:57):
harsh craziness that was going on. I would ride around
all day and not do anything, just being depressed. No
reason to go back to that hell. I don't want
to be in the house anymore, house haunted with bad memories,
Flat broke t Pain was heading down the one path
(15:18):
he feared most, getting stuck in Tallahassee. He knew the
only way out was to create a sound all his own.
I wanted to change. And the amount of rappers that
were popping up out then tala as It, it was
like I gotta hear something different. Everybody I was around
was a rapper, but I wanted to saying. He wasn't
(15:39):
Luke Van Draws singer, He wasn't a Chris Brown singer,
but he was then entertainer that had singing in his heart.
It came natural to him. As Pain began experimenting with
his voice, he remembered a computerized vocal he heard years
earlier on shares Megahead Believe, and after an exhaustive search,
he found an effect called auto tune. There was something
(16:01):
driving me to look for that damn thing, and I
found it, or did I found it? In two thousand four,
Pain put auto tune to work on his bootleg version
of a cons Locked Up. He called his version f up,
not locked, but where if calm broken? You can't go nowhere.
You know, bad times, no gay, you know, I can't
(16:24):
get nothing done. This was somebody that I respected as
a lyricist, and now he's singing, and I was kind
of shocked at myself. I was like, Yo, this song
it's hot. The streets were buzzing from Tallahassee to Atlanta,
where Acons Brother Boo and Aspiring Record Exactly took notice.
The first time I heard t Pain, I was like, Yo,
(16:45):
this kid is good. Yo, you gotta hit this kid.
He kind of reminds me of you in a lot
of ways. As soon as I heard it, I was like,
we to sign this kid. I was going to McDonald's
and trying to get a jot. I got bad home.
You gotta call on my rickety cell phone that had
like a minute and a half lamp on it, and
(17:07):
it was a con and I didn't believe it. And
I'm like, who's this for real? It's a con? Stop
playing my phone. Man. He hugg up and he called
back and it's like, yeah, this is really a con.
Don't hang up. He said, oh yo, my bad, I
ain't men hang up. But he actually thought that somebody
was playing on this phone. A con sent Bood to Tallahassee,
(17:31):
where they made their pitch for t Paying to join
their fledgling label, Convict Music. But they had competition now.
The major labels were knocking on his door too, and
the scope of for the most money off for nine
hundred thousand just off the top signing bone. As soon
as I signed, I get nine hundred thousand off. That's
crazy because we didn't have money like that. So at
that moment, I'm like, I lost his kid. Because you
(17:55):
gotta understand, I didn't have the power. I couldn't really
do anything for T Pain. I was it just said, listen, man,
I need you to believe in me or I know
is that I can give you an opportunity, and I believe.
And if he rolled him, rout you. Te Pain was torn.
His gut was telling him a con. But his father,
still acting as manager, felt they deserved more. My dad
(18:16):
wanted the money. Shaw. He wasn't having it. Shaw. He
was like, you are not going to Atlanta. You wrap,
you sing, you dance, you produce. You deserve a bigger
check than that. I was seeking the fail market value
for the talent. Of my child. He had invested a
lot of time and a lot of money into making
(18:38):
sure that Fame got what he needed, But at that
point where he wanted to be a man, he wanted
to make his own decision. After spending a week in Tallahassee,
Boon needed an answer. With hardly a dollar to his name,
te Pain knew he had to follow his heart, no
matter the consequences. I'm just thinking, was just the truest,
(18:59):
you know, the most considerate person that I've even though
he wasn't offering anyone at all. So I'm in my
car and I'm about to back up. He comes running
out of the house. He was like, yo, man, come
with you. I'm like, you come when you wear Ti
Pain to Atlanta. Man. I'm like huh. He was like, yeah, man,
(19:20):
I can't take it them a man, my father got
ato it. I'm tired. I packed up close shoes, lamps, blankets,
just random things, tape, salt, all kind of anything that
was in my room, a dirty bowl like I was
just stuffing stuff in his bag. He called me. I
(19:41):
could hear his heart beating through the phone. He was
just so nervous and excited and scared at the same time.
Crazy thing. We pulled out of my driveway and my
dad was willing it to come pick me up to
take us to the airport to go to meet Within
its go, he pulled up and we pulled out with
(20:04):
his dad in the rear view mirror. Tea Pain set
his sights on the future and never looked back. That
was real hard. That was one of the hardest times
in my life. That was the first time I ever
had truly made my ownest here. That was the moment
or I believe ever came from there. By the fall
of two thousand three, Tea Pain set his sights on
(20:24):
the future and decided to share the ride with his
girlfriend of two years, Amber Wyatt. In September, just weeks
before his twentieth birthday, they exchanged wedding vows. We have
that old fashion kind of unconditional forgiving everything that's happened,
doesn't been happening. She supported everything I've ever done everything.
(20:49):
Not long after the couple wed, they welcomed the daughter
they fittingly named Lyric. That was just father one of
the most heaviest highs of my life when I was
a beautiful It pushed him even harder. He was like,
I want her to not have to worry about anything. Ever.
(21:10):
With a young family to support, Tea Paine was eager
to jump start his music career after parting ways with
his one time rap group The Nappy Heads. Paine in
to deal with a CON's convict music and was making
his move as a solo artist. You gotta learn how
to fly. You're either gonna hit the ground. Are you
gonna hit this guy? And I told to hit this guy.
(21:31):
In August of two thousand five, Tea Paine dropped his
first official single, a tract inspired by his wife called
I'm Strong, which quickly became a top ten hit. Everybody
was talking about Gagster, so everybody's talking about Chootch I'll
Kill You and Pains talking about you got me doing
the dishes. That's what made him stand out was the uniqueness.
(21:52):
Paine sees the momentum and in December released his first album,
aptly titled Rapid turn Singer. The music had edged with
than R and B field, a unique combination that Pain
coined hard and B and a new legion of fans
eat it up. He admits the things that guys think
about would love to admit, but would never dare say
(22:13):
it because it makes them seem less hard well uncool.
I think that's where he won. He actually captured the
hearts of all the hardcore fellers that was actually sensitive inside.
Te pain also captured the hearts of the ladies, putting
his young marriage to the test. He all of a
(22:34):
sudden has tons of women just throwing themselves at him,
and he had never experienced that before. We hit some
bumps in the middle of that. I had treated on
Earth right a couple of times. That's when I was
just getting more famous and more famous, and I was
able to get more girls. And I felt terrible, And
you know, I still hope felt terrible about it. That
(22:54):
was pretty mad at him and being pretty mean to
him and resentful. But we love each other it to
the point where we're willing to fight to stay together.
Resolved to make things work, t Paine and Amber took
a trip to Costa Rica, where they found an unconventional
solution to their problems. We found this club down the
(23:15):
row from our hotel. We went in there and it
was large strippers all the one place, and I get
her a lap dance. This as a joke. You know,
They dance on my way. It was very random, out
of the blue. The next thing I know, I'm like
kissing one of the strippers. I was like, oh my god,
(23:36):
I'm so sorry. He's like, no, no, no, no, it's
okay and advertires to me and she says, I like her.
I was always attracted to women, but I had never
told him, But once we went down to Costa Rica,
it just kind of came out and we've been having
fun ever since. The couple quickly realized they had found
(23:56):
a creative way to strengthen their marriage. I think it's
just added another's park, you know what, I'm man, I
think it's just fun. The rules are I can't have
sex with the integral on myself about what we're doing,
and uh, that's it. Actually, it's really weird. You would
think it would mess a relationship up, but it was like,
(24:16):
from that moment on, he just opened up that in
turn made our relationship a lot stronger. By early two
thousand seven, te Paine was a rising R and B star,
known for his signature auto tune sound and for critics
who thought the computerized effect was a gimmick that wouldn't last.
Payne answered with the single Buy You a Drunk. I
(24:38):
was just like, this is gonna be the most massive
hit we've both ever seen. It's not the typical love
song and let's Pain again going outside the box. Pain
has always kind of marched to his own two. He
does stuff that feels good to him. To feel good
party too, and gave Payne his first number one single
(24:58):
and fueled the success the second album, Epiphany, which also
shot to the top of the charts. Now everyone took
notice as t Pain became the most sought after artist
in music. Every time he would get a song, he
would just deliver like it was just hit. It was undeniable,
every single time. During one remarkable stretch late No. Seven,
(25:18):
he was featured on four of Billboard's top ten singles,
but it was his collaboration with Kanye West on Good
Life that made the most noise, earning Pain his first
Grammy for Best Rap Song of two thousand seven GRAMM
and I was Awesome with her. That was just Susan's
travel te Pain had taken a huge risk when he
(25:38):
decided to change his image from rap to R and B,
and as he stood on top of the music world,
it all seemed worth it. Coming from somewhere where nobody
likes you, nobody talked to you, and now everybody wants
to like you and talk to you. You really hid him, Okay,
you came from people calling you fat ugly. You can
(26:01):
tell us all of it was his replaying. I kept
seeing those people in the crowd that used to like
tell me that I need to change my style up.
And the only thing I kept saying in my head
it was like a laser like I had laser eyes
like you Bill will Will. I just kept looking her
(26:24):
so awesome all night. I kept doing Its success was
indeed satisfied, but Pain wasn't able to share the joy
with his former manager, confidante and mentor his father. It
had been three years since te Pain abruptly left home
(26:46):
against his dad's wishes, and they had barely spoken since
ME and my dad had a strange relationship after all
that contexts that went down, you know, we didn't talk.
It hurt me to see the split between him and
his father. He because I didn't know how to try
to pull it back together. I always knew that in
the back of his mind, regardless of what they went through,
(27:08):
he wanted them to have relationship I'm the at for
a fact, but his father would never reach out. That
hit me hard as a man. Oh I was dejected.
I was depressed, and so I've been patiently waiting for
that day that he had picked up that phone and
(27:29):
called daddy. In two thousand seven, Tea Pain did better
than that. Hoping to make amends, he invited his father
to one of his shows. Backstage, the two met face
to face for the first time in years. My dad
came in my dressing room and he's going off and
going off. We get into a huge argument. He stopped
the argument and said, well, look here, you give me
(27:51):
two hift thousand college and never gotta worry about me
for the rest of your life. He was like, what
my dad, he didn't want it to be about money,
and it broke his heart. I don't know that's the
words words ever in my dad is there to me?
People try to compare it to when their parents let die.
(28:13):
I don't think it's anything worse than your parents being
alive and telling you to give them some money and
just act like they did. Any chance of reconciliation fell
by the wayside, even more so because Paine's father denies
the story. I know I didn't ask them for two
(28:34):
one in the fifty thou that jump change. I don't
know how somebody can expect you to have any respect
for them after that. At this point is unfixable. I
won't let it get fixed just because I won't believe
anything he says. Coming up, te Pain comes under fire
(28:55):
when behind the music continues. By the fall of two
thousand and eight, Te Pain was a bona fide star,
dominating the musical landscape with hit songs, Brandy awards, and
over sixty million dollars in ringtoe and sales. He came
(29:16):
in and changed the face of music. He got the
biggest artist in the industry to actually want to be
like him, like, hey man, we're lost. We can't make
a hit. You got thirty hits on the radio, Like
what are you doing? But Pain always had his critics,
and now the whispers over auto tune sounded more like
a deafening roar. I think the backlash first began with
(29:37):
Pain and auto tune. When everybody really did started trying
to use it and trying to outdo him. It had
like just got so saturated that everyone was using auto tune.
I think that whenever it's too much of something then
becomes the problem. They had to blame somebody, so obviously
he started his soul. He took the blame for it.
(29:59):
If you're gonna criticize something and you're gonna just hate
it to death, you can't like it at all. You
can't say that I sucked when I do it. But
if Chris Brown uses it, it's cool, or if Jamie
Fox isn't, it's all right. But te Pain was the
one that sucks when he uses it. That's weird to me.
(30:22):
As you said, something sucks and something sucks. Always seeing
himself as an outsider, chie Pain took the criticism in
stride and forged ahead. In late two thousand eleven, he
released his fourth studio album, choosing the title Revolver, which
reveals a second and more meaningful word, evolve. I made
a promise to myself that I wouldn't let anybody or
(30:44):
anything on me that I'm just trying to work to
get better, master my craft and get respected. For this
guy is a limit with him, he can do anything.
Chea Paining has evolved personally too. Now a father of three,
his relationship with Amber is going strong, and that's all
(31:05):
the inspiration he needs. She supported everything I've ever done. Everything,
I'm slaying with her. Whatever she want to do, I'm
doing it. I would do anything for him. He's amazing.
He promised himself that we would never downgrade. It would
only be upgrading from here on out. And I think
(31:30):
that's what pushes him to keep going and basically keep
taking care of his whole family. Te Pain has never
forgotten how far he's got. Holy crap. Yeah, it's gonna
be for nothing. Moore in a second, Oh boy. As
(31:52):
he finally walks inside his childhood home for the first
time in years, Oh lord, he head straight for his
bed room, the makeshift studio where his dreams and ambitions
were born. Oh man, look at this. It's weird, Like
(32:13):
I haven't been there in so long, and it's just
the things I used to do in here. Weird. If
somebody's in that booth and they're recording and they're not
getting it right, I would cut the air off. And
that's the only air supply they had, the shoe box
that's covering the event that goes into the booth, and
if I would cut that off, it is not a
(32:34):
happy day in record land for Tea paying the journey
has always been as an underdog, and he uses that
as fuel to keep moving forward. My biggest motivation right
now I have proven a point. I'm just gonna keep
passing everybody off. The more annoyed people are, that means
the more successful I am. I was just taking a
(32:56):
ride and whatever brought my way, whatever stops we make,
can I only get better. T Pain has continued to
grow and evolve in he cut off his signature Dreadlocks
and announced his fifth album, Stoicville The Phoenix. The project
represented a new beginning for the singer despite being plagued
(33:18):
with delays, and he has continued to push the boundaries
of his music. He sat down with NPR for a
Tiny Desk concert, performed live without auto tune, showcasing his
natural vocal range and ability. The performance remains one of
NPR's most popular Tiny Desk concerts. In addition to music,
(33:39):
Tea Pain has made forays into television, hosting two seasons
of Tea Pains School of Business. In Tea Pain won
the first season of the TV show The Masked Singer,
and on the same day released a surprise album, One Up.
Tea Pain's Time as the underdog is over as his
genre defining sound has helped shape the direction of pop
(34:01):
music and established his musical legacy. Listen and subscribe to
Behind the Music on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Be sure to
rate and review Behind the Music on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
What more episodes you can watch, remaster best of the
(34:22):
Vault and new episodes and Behind the Music only on
Paramount Plus
He's an R and B renegade, the man behind the
most recognizable sound of his generation. But t Paine's road
to success was paved with personal anguish. As a teenager,
he was betrayed by the one person he thought he
could trust. He struggled for years to make his mark
on an industry that rejected him, until one phone call
(00:21):
changed his life. Te Pain never looked back and climbed
to the top of the charts, creating hits with everyone
from Lil Wayne to Britney Spears. Now R and d's
Wild Child has it all, fame, fortune, love, and the
most unconventional of marriages. For the first time, the kid
(00:42):
from Tallahassee opens up about his unlikely journey to the top.
This is te Pain, the story behind the music. It's
December two thousand eleven, and Te Pain is back home
in Tallahassee, Florida with his wife Amber alone, after buying
(01:04):
back the house she grew up in. He's visiting the
property for the first time in years. Every dream I've
had for the last like eight months has taken place
in this house. It was so much to what I
called the sight. He like, what are these dreams? Man?
She said? It's just God, let you know, to not
forget where you came from and what's gone now. I
(01:29):
have sex right here all the time, pull my car
from over here to right here. I don't want anybody
to have my house. I don't know. It was like
a sense of pride. I guess I told everybody that
I was stay in this house when I made it,
and that's what I'm doing, not literally staying in it,
buying it, but it's still mine. Oh manner and something
(01:58):
like that. Oh holy crap. Tea pain was born for him.
Rashid Najum in Tallahassee, Florida, on September. One of five children,
he grew up in a middle class, close knit Muslim family,
(02:18):
but as a shy and unusual child, he always felt
like an outcast in school. That's how it was kind
of terrible. I don't treated that well. And it's cool
about the kids. I used to get picked on a
whole lot, fat chubby tubby. They would make me try
to do push ups. How did not address smell? That crap?
Every day? I would wear the same clothes for like
three weeks. The kids and teeth used to call and
(02:41):
repeat ton and I never knew what that meant, and
finally one day I asked him, I said, what does
that mean? They say, oh, here repeace, the same clothes
every day. Young for him and his family were an anomaly,
a stable unit in a neighborhood that was otherwise a
sea of poverty and broken homes. I was the only
kid in my neighborhood that I had both bars. We
(03:02):
was a strong middle class family. I had a very
powerful job. My wife was working with the school board,
so it was a very powerful to income family. We
were entrepreneurs. We used to own a restaurant. We were
mission oriented. In his spare time, Shahid Nasham worked with
neighborhood kids, teaching them an alternative to a life of
(03:24):
drugs and crime. Young for him naturally looked up to
his father. They were very tight. They always was together.
I used to have a youth program, Homeboys two Men,
and he was one of my prominent members and the youngest.
You believe what his daddy was killing him. My dad
(03:45):
taught me you gotta know yourself first before you can
say anything about anybody else, because if you know how
you feel when you go through things, that's exactly how
everybody else feels he's a super smart. She had also
shared with his son his love of music, and with
his boy was eight, gave him an important gift. My
dad found a keyboard on the side of the road.
(04:07):
And my dad was a salvaging kind of guy, so
he was like, this looks like it still works. He
bought it in, plug it up, and it worked. Then
bout a week later, to my amazement, he said, Daddy,
I know how to play your favorite song. I see,
you don't even know what my favorite song yet he see,
and he played live for every voice and sing the
(04:27):
Black national anthem, WHOA Got a little something here for him?
Spent hours in his room listening to the radio, teaching
himself to play along by year, and quickly realized his
passion was also a gift. I would see different parts
of the music. I would see a whole song, and
(04:47):
I would literally see the parts that I'm hearing and
just come apart. It would kind of weir me out.
But I didn't talk to anybody about it. I didn't
say anything about it bigging. I thought everybody couldn't do it.
I thought everybody saw that. I thought that's how you
get music done by saying it first and then doing it.
But Fahim's father soon bought him a bigger keyboard and
(05:09):
a four track recorder. The twelve year old began writing
and producing his own music, transforming his bedroom into a studio.
It would become his sanctuary as he still faced ridicule
and taunts at school. That was definitely my father tude,
and just lock myself in my room and thank that
radio up with the speakers were from the head and
(05:29):
and just play those base lines. I would take my
anger out like that. I would just played base lines
to music and I would calm me down. That would
make me forget about everything that I haven't there there,
let's forget. By the time he reached eighth grade, Faheim's
father made a bold decision. He pulled his son out
(05:50):
of school. Found He said, I make a deal with
you home school. You can do your music, but you
got to get to education. And once ize don't fit out.
So I removed him, getting me out of his damn goes.
I'll go home and recall I thought I was worried
about all day. I just wanted to do music. I
(06:12):
wanted to be the biggest, the biggest thing out to
Tai by the fall of n precocious thirteen year old
name for he Nauseum had a single minded goal to
become a rap star. Once I set my mind on
something that hasn't happened, it has to go down. Trapped
(06:33):
in the depressed surroundings of his hometown, for he looked
at hip hop as his only way out. So we
took on the moniker t Pain with the T standing
for Tallahassee to rep where he came from and to
remind him where he ultimately wanted to go. See. Pain
wasn't came from the pain and struggling on trying to
(06:53):
get out of tallah AzID. I think you have to
have a certain push, you have to really want to
leave as you don't. Then dum Te Pain spent the
majority of his time in his makeshift bedroom studio. It
wasn't long before words spread about his fly set up
(07:14):
and MCS came knocking on his door. The moment I
started getting friends when everybody found out I did me was.
I hadn't been the studios before, but it's like this
home studio just different. You know, his work ethic with
the music, and he like said his imagination, it's crazy
te Pain, along with his brother Rashid and five other
local mcs, formed a rap collective they called the nappy Heads,
(07:36):
and while Paine was the youngest member, he wrote and
produced most of the material. I would describe the nap
Head sign as revolutionary. The nappy heads first breakthrough it
was in two thousand two on a bootleg track called Robbery,
with t Pain literally robbing the beat from someone else's
song making it his own. Robert took off like nobody's business.
(08:00):
It was kaya my nick, my back. We just made
a hoodenburg another. At the time, nobody really was doing
b jacks like that to that extent. And then on
it really turned into this huge thing where the neighborhood
knew us then all the time, as inne us in
Florida and Georgia's and Carolina's and then it just started
(08:21):
spreading and reading. With his father managing the group, sixteen
year old Cheap Pain and the Nappi ed's get the
stage what touring throughout Florida and the greater Southeast. Yeah,
it's your boy playing to the Pandoras down representing old
eight mile old to the fuller, don't We did at
(08:43):
least two hundred and seventy shows within a year and
a half. We were real hard and we tried to
master on crap, cheap pains. Single minded focus left little
time for a social life. But that all changed the
moment he laid eyes on Amber Wyatt. I met Amber
(09:05):
December seventh, two thousand one. This was at her sister's
birthday party and I was producing her sister. She's beautiful,
the most beautiful girl I've seen in my life. That's wrong,
look at that. See as soon as I saw him,
I was like my husband, and everybody was like, who's
(09:28):
wrong with you? And the whole time, I'm so nervous.
I got the camera on. Beautiful, really beautiful. The camera
I'm carrying, I have it on, but I haven't pointing
at me, so I don't have to look at her.
I'm like filming myself having a conversation with her, so
I don't have to look at her because I'm so nervous.
And I gave him a hug and I didn't want
(09:49):
to let go. Amber walks up and kisses me. Fireworks
all over the plane. She's all over the plans in
my mind. At the end of the night, we were
telling each other we were going to get married. As
te Paine and Amber embarked on a meaningful relationship, another
was dissolving before his eyes after his father allegedly cheated
(10:12):
with several group He's on the Road. Payne's mom walked out,
and the seventeen year old shouldered the blame for his
now broken family. I say it was my fault. If
I would have never done any of this. My dad
wouldn't have been on the road to get those women
for my mom to find out. Even now, I can't
(10:33):
put that out of my head. I really want it,
but I just can't find any other logic that would
have made that appen. Shahid, not jam also took the
break up very hard. The family scattered, and te pain
and his father found themselves alone in their once vibrant home.
I was a family man until all of a sudden,
(10:54):
be without a family hit. He started getting depressed. He's
start going to real depressed. The maintenance of the house
started going downhill, and his dad was in his room
a lot of the time with the door closed. Shad's
behavior grew more erratic by the day, and then in
the winter of two thousand two, he hit rock bottom.
(11:17):
And what spiraled into one of the most terrifying experiences
of Tethane's life. I hear him cocking a gun in
his room and he just keeps cocking it, and then
he stops cocking. He goes, yeah, he's scared now. And
I'm like, oh God, I don't know what's going on.
(11:38):
I can tell that he's really mad at something. He's like, yeah,
what you're gonna do now, what you're gonna do now?
And he came running back in the studio and I
was like, what's going on? And he's like, my dad
is holding a gun. He's just telling me there was
little tiny men coming out of the bed and he
was kind of hallucinating, and he said somebody was messing
with the window. Oh my mom, And I said, mom,
(12:02):
dad has been yelling at me, saying somebody on his bed.
I told me that his father had a problem. I
felt like he needed to know because it was an adult,
A deep, dark family secret had finally come to light,
one that had been carefully hidden from the teenager for years.
That's when my mom told me that's my dad had
(12:24):
been on cocaine for a really long time and come
to find out that's why we ran out of money,
while Shahid Nadum denies that he ever had a drug problem.
For Tea Paying, who had always looked up to his father,
the news was stunning. I was terrible, little hell. I't
t him for one. I didn't believe my mom. I
(12:48):
just hung up on her. It was impossible for him
to believe because it was his father and here it was.
You know, he was falling victim of the same things
he had taught him not to do. So fighting withdrew
to him is very devastated. It was like, why isn't
anybody telling me what's going on? And he just felt
(13:09):
kind of like an outcast. Everybody knew by me. I
had no idea. That's the moment I stopped believing everything.
Ever that everybody I don't believing him again. Anything is
that coming up? Te Pain makes a bold move, and
later a baby girl provides inspiration. When behind the Music
(13:32):
continues By the winner of two thousand two, seventeen year
old Tea Pain's dreams of rap superstardom were stuck in neutral.
His group, the Nappy Heads, were well known in the
South and had attracted plenty of interest from record labels,
(13:52):
but Paine and his Tallahassee crew had yet to strike
a deal. He was getting very streaty with the music
because it would seem like everything would be going really
good and they were almost there. They would have record
deal offers and then it would just all fall apart,
and it kept happening over and over. Not it has
(14:15):
made no money. We probably got like a hundred bucks
every show with a piece, but it was so many
of us. We had to w all that money. You know,
when my dad was a manager, so he would get
the biggest gut. He took my money and his money,
but you know, God knows what he was doing with
his money. T Pain had reason to be skeptical. He
had recently been told that his father had a nasty,
(14:35):
for long drug habit, and now Pain felt trapped. When
my mom left, he started bringing girls to the house
and started bringing other people to the house, and I
knew for sure it was gonna go gain. It just
started agatting weird. A lot of times, peopleuld go live
in his car because he could listen to his music
in there, and that was his escape from all the
(14:57):
harsh craziness that was going on. I would ride around
all day and not do anything, just being depressed. No
reason to go back to that hell. I don't want
to be in the house anymore, house haunted with bad memories,
Flat broke t Pain was heading down the one path
(15:18):
he feared most, getting stuck in Tallahassee. He knew the
only way out was to create a sound all his own.
I wanted to change. And the amount of rappers that
were popping up out then tala as It, it was
like I gotta hear something different. Everybody I was around
was a rapper, but I wanted to saying. He wasn't
(15:39):
Luke Van Draws singer, He wasn't a Chris Brown singer,
but he was then entertainer that had singing in his heart.
It came natural to him. As Pain began experimenting with
his voice, he remembered a computerized vocal he heard years
earlier on shares Megahead Believe, and after an exhaustive search,
he found an effect called auto tune. There was something
(16:01):
driving me to look for that damn thing, and I
found it, or did I found it? In two thousand four,
Pain put auto tune to work on his bootleg version
of a cons Locked Up. He called his version f up,
not locked, but where if calm broken? You can't go nowhere.
You know, bad times, no gay, you know, I can't
(16:24):
get nothing done. This was somebody that I respected as
a lyricist, and now he's singing, and I was kind
of shocked at myself. I was like, Yo, this song
it's hot. The streets were buzzing from Tallahassee to Atlanta,
where Acons Brother Boo and Aspiring Record Exactly took notice.
The first time I heard t Pain, I was like, Yo,
(16:45):
this kid is good. Yo, you gotta hit this kid.
He kind of reminds me of you in a lot
of ways. As soon as I heard it, I was like,
we to sign this kid. I was going to McDonald's
and trying to get a jot. I got bad home.
You gotta call on my rickety cell phone that had
like a minute and a half lamp on it, and
(17:07):
it was a con and I didn't believe it. And
I'm like, who's this for real? It's a con? Stop
playing my phone. Man. He hugg up and he called
back and it's like, yeah, this is really a con.
Don't hang up. He said, oh yo, my bad, I
ain't men hang up. But he actually thought that somebody
was playing on this phone. A con sent Bood to Tallahassee,
(17:31):
where they made their pitch for t Paying to join
their fledgling label, Convict Music. But they had competition now.
The major labels were knocking on his door too, and
the scope of for the most money off for nine
hundred thousand just off the top signing bone. As soon
as I signed, I get nine hundred thousand off. That's
crazy because we didn't have money like that. So at
that moment, I'm like, I lost his kid. Because you
(17:55):
gotta understand, I didn't have the power. I couldn't really
do anything for T Pain. I was it just said, listen, man,
I need you to believe in me or I know
is that I can give you an opportunity, and I believe.
And if he rolled him, rout you. Te Pain was torn.
His gut was telling him a con. But his father,
still acting as manager, felt they deserved more. My dad
(18:16):
wanted the money. Shaw. He wasn't having it. Shaw. He
was like, you are not going to Atlanta. You wrap,
you sing, you dance, you produce. You deserve a bigger
check than that. I was seeking the fail market value
for the talent. Of my child. He had invested a
lot of time and a lot of money into making
(18:38):
sure that Fame got what he needed, But at that
point where he wanted to be a man, he wanted
to make his own decision. After spending a week in Tallahassee,
Boon needed an answer. With hardly a dollar to his name,
te Pain knew he had to follow his heart, no
matter the consequences. I'm just thinking, was just the truest,
(18:59):
you know, the most considerate person that I've even though
he wasn't offering anyone at all. So I'm in my
car and I'm about to back up. He comes running
out of the house. He was like, yo, man, come
with you. I'm like, you come when you wear Ti
Pain to Atlanta. Man. I'm like huh. He was like, yeah, man,
(19:20):
I can't take it them a man, my father got
ato it. I'm tired. I packed up close shoes, lamps, blankets,
just random things, tape, salt, all kind of anything that
was in my room, a dirty bowl like I was
just stuffing stuff in his bag. He called me. I
(19:41):
could hear his heart beating through the phone. He was
just so nervous and excited and scared at the same time.
Crazy thing. We pulled out of my driveway and my
dad was willing it to come pick me up to
take us to the airport to go to meet Within
its go, he pulled up and we pulled out with
(20:04):
his dad in the rear view mirror. Tea Pain set
his sights on the future and never looked back. That
was real hard. That was one of the hardest times
in my life. That was the first time I ever
had truly made my ownest here. That was the moment
or I believe ever came from there. By the fall
of two thousand three, Tea Pain set his sights on
(20:24):
the future and decided to share the ride with his
girlfriend of two years, Amber Wyatt. In September, just weeks
before his twentieth birthday, they exchanged wedding vows. We have
that old fashion kind of unconditional forgiving everything that's happened,
doesn't been happening. She supported everything I've ever done everything.
(20:49):
Not long after the couple wed, they welcomed the daughter
they fittingly named Lyric. That was just father one of
the most heaviest highs of my life when I was
a beautiful It pushed him even harder. He was like,
I want her to not have to worry about anything. Ever.
(21:10):
With a young family to support, Tea Paine was eager
to jump start his music career after parting ways with
his one time rap group The Nappy Heads. Paine in
to deal with a CON's convict music and was making
his move as a solo artist. You gotta learn how
to fly. You're either gonna hit the ground. Are you
gonna hit this guy? And I told to hit this guy.
(21:31):
In August of two thousand five, Tea Paine dropped his
first official single, a tract inspired by his wife called
I'm Strong, which quickly became a top ten hit. Everybody
was talking about Gagster, so everybody's talking about Chootch I'll
Kill You and Pains talking about you got me doing
the dishes. That's what made him stand out was the uniqueness.
(21:52):
Paine sees the momentum and in December released his first album,
aptly titled Rapid turn Singer. The music had edged with
than R and B field, a unique combination that Pain
coined hard and B and a new legion of fans
eat it up. He admits the things that guys think
about would love to admit, but would never dare say
(22:13):
it because it makes them seem less hard well uncool.
I think that's where he won. He actually captured the
hearts of all the hardcore fellers that was actually sensitive inside.
Te pain also captured the hearts of the ladies, putting
his young marriage to the test. He all of a
(22:34):
sudden has tons of women just throwing themselves at him,
and he had never experienced that before. We hit some
bumps in the middle of that. I had treated on
Earth right a couple of times. That's when I was
just getting more famous and more famous, and I was
able to get more girls. And I felt terrible, And
you know, I still hope felt terrible about it. That
(22:54):
was pretty mad at him and being pretty mean to
him and resentful. But we love each other it to
the point where we're willing to fight to stay together.
Resolved to make things work, t Paine and Amber took
a trip to Costa Rica, where they found an unconventional
solution to their problems. We found this club down the
(23:15):
row from our hotel. We went in there and it
was large strippers all the one place, and I get
her a lap dance. This as a joke. You know,
They dance on my way. It was very random, out
of the blue. The next thing I know, I'm like
kissing one of the strippers. I was like, oh my god,
(23:36):
I'm so sorry. He's like, no, no, no, no, it's
okay and advertires to me and she says, I like her.
I was always attracted to women, but I had never
told him, But once we went down to Costa Rica,
it just kind of came out and we've been having
fun ever since. The couple quickly realized they had found
(23:56):
a creative way to strengthen their marriage. I think it's
just added another's park, you know what, I'm man, I
think it's just fun. The rules are I can't have
sex with the integral on myself about what we're doing,
and uh, that's it. Actually, it's really weird. You would
think it would mess a relationship up, but it was like,
(24:16):
from that moment on, he just opened up that in
turn made our relationship a lot stronger. By early two
thousand seven, te Paine was a rising R and B star,
known for his signature auto tune sound and for critics
who thought the computerized effect was a gimmick that wouldn't last.
Payne answered with the single Buy You a Drunk. I
(24:38):
was just like, this is gonna be the most massive
hit we've both ever seen. It's not the typical love
song and let's Pain again going outside the box. Pain
has always kind of marched to his own two. He
does stuff that feels good to him. To feel good
party too, and gave Payne his first number one single
(24:58):
and fueled the success the second album, Epiphany, which also
shot to the top of the charts. Now everyone took
notice as t Pain became the most sought after artist
in music. Every time he would get a song, he
would just deliver like it was just hit. It was undeniable,
every single time. During one remarkable stretch late No. Seven,
(25:18):
he was featured on four of Billboard's top ten singles,
but it was his collaboration with Kanye West on Good
Life that made the most noise, earning Pain his first
Grammy for Best Rap Song of two thousand seven GRAMM
and I was Awesome with her. That was just Susan's
travel te Pain had taken a huge risk when he
(25:38):
decided to change his image from rap to R and B,
and as he stood on top of the music world,
it all seemed worth it. Coming from somewhere where nobody
likes you, nobody talked to you, and now everybody wants
to like you and talk to you. You really hid him, Okay,
you came from people calling you fat ugly. You can
(26:01):
tell us all of it was his replaying. I kept
seeing those people in the crowd that used to like
tell me that I need to change my style up.
And the only thing I kept saying in my head
it was like a laser like I had laser eyes
like you Bill will Will. I just kept looking her
(26:24):
so awesome all night. I kept doing Its success was
indeed satisfied, but Pain wasn't able to share the joy
with his former manager, confidante and mentor his father. It
had been three years since te Pain abruptly left home
(26:46):
against his dad's wishes, and they had barely spoken since
ME and my dad had a strange relationship after all
that contexts that went down, you know, we didn't talk.
It hurt me to see the split between him and
his father. He because I didn't know how to try
to pull it back together. I always knew that in
the back of his mind, regardless of what they went through,
(27:08):
he wanted them to have relationship I'm the at for
a fact, but his father would never reach out. That
hit me hard as a man. Oh I was dejected.
I was depressed, and so I've been patiently waiting for
that day that he had picked up that phone and
(27:29):
called daddy. In two thousand seven, Tea Pain did better
than that. Hoping to make amends, he invited his father
to one of his shows. Backstage, the two met face
to face for the first time in years. My dad
came in my dressing room and he's going off and
going off. We get into a huge argument. He stopped
the argument and said, well, look here, you give me
(27:51):
two hift thousand college and never gotta worry about me
for the rest of your life. He was like, what
my dad, he didn't want it to be about money,
and it broke his heart. I don't know that's the
words words ever in my dad is there to me?
People try to compare it to when their parents let die.
(28:13):
I don't think it's anything worse than your parents being
alive and telling you to give them some money and
just act like they did. Any chance of reconciliation fell
by the wayside, even more so because Paine's father denies
the story. I know I didn't ask them for two
(28:34):
one in the fifty thou that jump change. I don't
know how somebody can expect you to have any respect
for them after that. At this point is unfixable. I
won't let it get fixed just because I won't believe
anything he says. Coming up, te Pain comes under fire
(28:55):
when behind the music continues. By the fall of two
thousand and eight, Te Pain was a bona fide star,
dominating the musical landscape with hit songs, Brandy awards, and
over sixty million dollars in ringtoe and sales. He came
(29:16):
in and changed the face of music. He got the
biggest artist in the industry to actually want to be
like him, like, hey man, we're lost. We can't make
a hit. You got thirty hits on the radio, Like
what are you doing? But Pain always had his critics,
and now the whispers over auto tune sounded more like
a deafening roar. I think the backlash first began with
(29:37):
Pain and auto tune. When everybody really did started trying
to use it and trying to outdo him. It had
like just got so saturated that everyone was using auto tune.
I think that whenever it's too much of something then
becomes the problem. They had to blame somebody, so obviously
he started his soul. He took the blame for it.
(29:59):
If you're gonna criticize something and you're gonna just hate
it to death, you can't like it at all. You
can't say that I sucked when I do it. But
if Chris Brown uses it, it's cool, or if Jamie
Fox isn't, it's all right. But te Pain was the
one that sucks when he uses it. That's weird to me.
(30:22):
As you said, something sucks and something sucks. Always seeing
himself as an outsider, chie Pain took the criticism in
stride and forged ahead. In late two thousand eleven, he
released his fourth studio album, choosing the title Revolver, which
reveals a second and more meaningful word, evolve. I made
a promise to myself that I wouldn't let anybody or
(30:44):
anything on me that I'm just trying to work to
get better, master my craft and get respected. For this
guy is a limit with him, he can do anything.
Chea Paining has evolved personally too. Now a father of three,
his relationship with Amber is going strong, and that's all
(31:05):
the inspiration he needs. She supported everything I've ever done. Everything,
I'm slaying with her. Whatever she want to do, I'm
doing it. I would do anything for him. He's amazing.
He promised himself that we would never downgrade. It would
only be upgrading from here on out. And I think
(31:30):
that's what pushes him to keep going and basically keep
taking care of his whole family. Te Pain has never
forgotten how far he's got. Holy crap. Yeah, it's gonna
be for nothing. Moore in a second, Oh boy. As
(31:52):
he finally walks inside his childhood home for the first
time in years, Oh lord, he head straight for his
bed room, the makeshift studio where his dreams and ambitions
were born. Oh man, look at this. It's weird, Like
(32:13):
I haven't been there in so long, and it's just
the things I used to do in here. Weird. If
somebody's in that booth and they're recording and they're not
getting it right, I would cut the air off. And
that's the only air supply they had, the shoe box
that's covering the event that goes into the booth, and
if I would cut that off, it is not a
(32:34):
happy day in record land for Tea paying the journey
has always been as an underdog, and he uses that
as fuel to keep moving forward. My biggest motivation right
now I have proven a point. I'm just gonna keep
passing everybody off. The more annoyed people are, that means
the more successful I am. I was just taking a
(32:56):
ride and whatever brought my way, whatever stops we make,
can I only get better. T Pain has continued to
grow and evolve in he cut off his signature Dreadlocks
and announced his fifth album, Stoicville The Phoenix. The project
represented a new beginning for the singer despite being plagued
(33:18):
with delays, and he has continued to push the boundaries
of his music. He sat down with NPR for a
Tiny Desk concert, performed live without auto tune, showcasing his
natural vocal range and ability. The performance remains one of
NPR's most popular Tiny Desk concerts. In addition to music,
(33:39):
Tea Pain has made forays into television, hosting two seasons
of Tea Pains School of Business. In Tea Pain won
the first season of the TV show The Masked Singer,
and on the same day released a surprise album, One Up.
Tea Pain's Time as the underdog is over as his
genre defining sound has helped shape the direction of pop
(34:01):
music and established his musical legacy. Listen and subscribe to
Behind the Music on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Be sure to
rate and review Behind the Music on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
What more episodes you can watch, remaster best of the
(34:22):
Vault and new episodes and Behind the Music only on
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