T-Pain says he battled depression after Usher said he “fucked up music” with Auto-Tune
T-Pain revealed that Usher was one of the many critics of his use of Auto-Tune.
When T-Pain launched his music career, he changed the game with his use of Auto-Tune. The voice enhancer was subsequently used by multiple artists in the industry, receiving criticism from musicians like JAY-Z, who didn’t rely on added features to make hit records. Pain recently revealed Usher was one of the singers who denounced the Auto-Tune pitch.
“Usher was my friend,” T-Pain said in a clip of the forthcoming Netflix series “This is Pop.” “I really respect Usher. And he said, ‘I’m gonna tell you something, man. You kinda fucked up music.’”
The producer said that he thought the comment was joke, but then he realized the Confessions star was being serious.
“He was like, ‘Yeah man you really fucked up music for real singers,’” T-Pain went on. “I was like, ‘What did I do? I came out and I used Auto-Tune.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, you fucked it up.’ I’m like, ‘But I used it, I didn’t tell everybody else to start using it.’”
Pain concluded, “That is the very moment, and I don’t even think I realized this for a long time, but that’s the very moment that started a four-year depression for me.”
Though Pain credits the start of that dark time to Usher, he recently admitted that Nicki Minaj also hurt his feelings back in the day. The Tallahassee singer said that the rapper was supposed to hop on one of his tracks, but her busy schedule got in the way.
“We was about to work together, and she stopped responding, and I was like, ‘Nick, let me know what’s going on,’” he said. “She was like, ‘Hey, I’m an artist too, and I’m working on my shit… Baby, chill.’ And I was like, ‘Oh… My heart.’”
Upon hearing Pain recount the memory, Nicki issued a public apology and praised the producer for his musical talents.
Check out the clip from “This is Pop” below.