Almost half the album vocals are recorded with T-Pain’s not-all-that-otherworldly voice intact. But what’s most surprising about Epiphany is that it really isn’t all that reliant on T-Pain’s too-often-mentioned signature talk-box. It’s really odd, especially when T-Pain features himself, and in some caes, more than one version of himself, on one song. Teddy Penderazdoun is the rapper, Teddy Verseti, the rocker, Teddy Pain the loverman, and good ‘ol T-Pain the talk-box wielding chorus man. One of the frequently ignored aspects of Epiphany is T-Pain’s use of different aliases for his different vocals styles. It’s so singularly focused, with T-Pain admitting, “it’s the reason that I’m singing this song / ‘cause I ain’t got nothing else to bust a nut on” that you kinda have to step back and admire the carnal tenacity of it all - which is what makes Epiphany one of the more exciting pop releases this year. “69” is a strangely ebullient ode to the reciprocal sex position but seems almost anti-climatic after “Yo Stomach”, where T-Pain lavishes his attention on a six-packed-out abdomen. Clubbing, drinking, and admiring women are still his main obsessions, and his newest single, “Bartender”, with Akon (a hook-man’s dream), features all these in one.
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Epiphany is full of bright, vibrant and downright exciting production: “Church” is a fast-paced, vigorous club track with bongos, spikey guitars, rolling organs, and handclaps all arranged into a meticulous whole “Put it Down” is little more than minimal, echoey synth notes reminiscent of a more restrained Timbaland and the drums on “Backseat Action” sound like primal electro-techno sputtering beneath quiet wah-wah synths.īut as increasingly great as T-Pain is as a producer, don’t expect his lyrical priorities to change much.
Kelly, and most of today’s most interesting hip-hop and R&B, it’s easy to ignore the insipidity of it all when the arrangements are so good. Kelly, T-Pain relishes in that fine line between in-on-the-joke ridiculousness and the borderline criminal (like the date-rape-ish “I know you ain’t feelin’ me / I promise that you take a sip of this you’ll be right here hearin’ me”). Important context: before this he’s trying to get a chick just a little bit inebriated, ‘cause, in his words: “I know you wouldn’t do what you do unless your tipsy.” After that he’s channeling his Bang Bus fantasies by taking his girl onto the highway to have sex (“I done cleared out the backseat”, he assures).
On Epiphany, the Florida-born, Tallahassee-repping singer, slightly expands upon his body-part obsessed persona with a strangely-placed AIDS track (“Suicide”) with T-Pain considering suicide after learning he might have contracted HIV by not wearing a rubber. The Slate article wonders aloud why T-Pain is such a popular radio staple and Rosen’s “simplest” answer - that gullible consumers will snatch up any pop novelty record, especially one that “speaks to the zeitgeist” - is downright insulting. What most fail to notice, or admit, is that T-Pain is a consummate, at times quite innovative, producer (Kanye recently said he was the next R. This is what Jody Rosen, supposes in a recent Slate article - that T-Pain is another in a long line of R&B sex-addicts but with a slight vocal-tic twist. If you’ve only heard T-Pain’s radio hits, you’ll be led to believe he’s a one-trick pony, using this trademark effect as a cheap substitute to actual talent or as a cloying attempt to separate himself from the aforementioned forgottens.
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His main claim to fame is the ubiquitous vocoder/talk box/Pro Tools effect (henceforth referred to as “talk box”, ‘cuz it sounds the most sexually appropriate). But why T-Pain? Of all the popular artists on the airwaves he initially seems the most prone to novelty - the most likely to fade into the same collected bin of forgotten R&B artists such as Case, Ginuine, Jagged Edge, Joe, Kci & JoJo, Maxwell and Tyrese. Some, like Sean Fennessy understand its silliness, but still deem T-Pain’s sparse, two records worth of material worthy of paragraphical critique. How seriously should we take this music? By “we” I mean both listeners and critics.
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