T-Pain

T-Pain has been married to Amber Najm since 2003. They have three children, a daughter named Lyriq and two sons named Muziq and Kaydnz Kodah, who was born in May 2009.

T-Pain was raised in a Muslim household. He has expressed a lack of interest in organized religion. He has also spoken about music entering his life at an early age, after gospel jazz artist and producer Ben Tankard allowed him to spend time in his recording studio.

T-Pain began his recording career with the Tallahassee hip-hop group Nappy Headz. His stage name is derived from "Tallahassee Pain," a phrase connected to the hardships he experienced while living in his hometown. At age ten, he converted his bedroom into a music studio with a keyboard, beat machine, and four-track recorder.

He released the mixtape Back @ It in 2004 and attracted Akon's attention with a modified cover of Akon's song "Locked Up." Akon subsequently signed him to Konvict Muzik, with Jive Records involved in the joint venture. T-Pain's debut studio album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released in 2005.

The album produced his first major singles, "I'm Sprung" and "I'm 'n Luv (wit a Stripper)," featuring Mike Jones. "I'm Sprung" reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, while "I'm 'n Luv (wit a Stripper)" reached number five.

T-Pain's second album, Epiphany, was released in 2007 and reached number one on the Billboard 200. Its lead single, "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')," featuring Yung Joc, became his first song to reach number one on both the Hot 100 and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The album also included "Bartender," featuring Akon.

His performance with Kanye West on "Good Life" earned a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song. T-Pain also won a Grammy Award for his work with Jamie Foxx on "Blame It."

T-Pain founded Nappy Boy Entertainment in 2005. His third album, Three Ringz, was released in 2008 under the new label and reached number four on the Billboard 200. The album featured collaborations with Lil Wayne, Ludacris, Chris Brown, Ciara, T.I., DJ Khaled, and Kanye West.

T-Pain and Lil Wayne formed the duo T-Wayne in 2008. Their self-titled mixtape was released later that year, and a collection of previously recorded tracks was issued in 2017.

T-Pain is closely associated with the creative use of Auto-Tune, a pitch-correction processor that he used with extreme settings to produce a robotic vocal sound. He began using the effect while looking for a distinctive vocal identity and incorporated it into a style he called "Hard & B," a play on R&B.

His approach helped popularize Auto-Tune in hip-hop and contemporary R&B during the 2000s. Artists including Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, the Black Eyed Peas, and Diddy-Dirty Money later used related vocal effects in their music. T-Pain served as a consultant on Kanye West's *808s & Heartbreak.

In 2009, he partnered with Smule on the iPhone application I Am T-Pain, which allowed users to apply an Auto-Tune effect to their own singing. He later released On Top of the Covers in 2023, an album of cover songs that notably did not use Auto-Tune.

T-Pain expanded into acting and voice work with appearances in projects including Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Freaknik: The Musical, The Cleveland Show, Squidbillies, We Bare Bears, and the film Lottery Ticket. He voiced the character of Frylock in a live-action episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and played a liquor store clerk in Lottery Ticket.

In 2019, he won the first season of the Fox reality music competition The Masked Singer as Monster. He also hosted the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards and has hosted T-Pain's School of Business, a Fuse documentary series about entrepreneurs.

T-Pain launched the Nappy Boy Radio Podcast in 2021 with co-hosts Vanessa Fraction and Party Pip. He is also a regular Twitch streamer and created Nappy Boy Automotive as a drifting team and motorsports venture. His literary debut, Can I Mix You a Drink?, was published in 2021.