T-Pain is the first artist that comes to mind when people think of Auto-Tune. He used the singing technology to become one of the preeminent hitmakers of the 2000s. There was a stretch were it felt smash hits required an Auto-Tuned Pain chorus by law. The rappa ternt sanga reflected on this period during a recent appearance on the Big Pod with Shaq. He recounted the pushback he got initially, and credited a veteran West Coast rapper for changing public opinion on Auto-Tune.
"That's all it was. It was only resistance," T-Pain told the podcast host. "Until somebody cool did it." The singer claimed that Snoop Dogg, of all people, was the person who helped Auto-Tune gets its legs in the pop music landscape. "Snoop did it, then it was tonally fine," he recalled. "Everybody was like, 'Okay, I guess we can listen to it.'" To be fair to T-Pain, Snoop Dogg has repeatedly cited him as the influence on Auto-Tuned hits like "Sexual Eruption." The LBC legend said as much during an appearance on Pain's own podcast, Nappy Boy Radio.
T-Pain Snoop Dogg Songs
"You inspired me when I got that record from Shawty Lo," Snoop Dogg asserted in 2023. "I get the record and I'm like ok let me put a little T-Pain on it." The rapper claimed that Pain's name was used in place of the term "Auto-Tune," because he was so closely tied to the technology. "[I said] 'Put a little T-Pain on my voice," Snoop recalled. The rapper even joked about his frustration with the tech, claiming he briefly considered calling T-Pain for a feature. In the end "Sexual Eruption" was a hit, and Snoop and Pain eventually worked together on the songs "Boom" (2011) and "That's How We Ballin" (2023).
Snoop Dogg being the rapper who popularized Auto-Tune may come as a surprise. Kanye West famously used the technology on 808s & Heartbreak in 2008. Lil Wayne used it to score his first number one song, "Lollipop," the same year. T-Pain even rapped about these two being his favorite artists on his album cut "Karaoke." "The only n**gas that's cool is Kanye and Lil Weezy," he spit. It seems like we can add Snoop to Pain's very short list of "cool" rappers who did the Auto-Tune thing.
[via]
