T-Pain Hits Back at ‘King of Auto-Tune’ Debate With Classic Denzel Moment From ‘Training Day’

T-Pain, by sheer default, would take the crown among this group of vocalists due to his use of the tool far preceding the work of the other listed artists. His aforementioned debut, for example, was released way back in 2005. Even Ye seems to have understood T-Pain’s importance at one point, as he famously enlisted him during sessions for an album that would take Auto-Tune to new artistic heights and thus reinvent the modern music landscape in the process, i.e. the characteristically ahead-of-its-time 2008 classic 808s & Heartbreak.

In an anniversary-commemorating interview with Billboard back in 2015, T-Pain said that Ye specifically mentioned Rappa Ternt Sanga as an inspiration on the deeply vulnerable album, the release of which came roughly a year after the death of Ye’s mother, Donda West.

“He even brought me in to make it sound more like Rappa Ternt Sanga,” T-Pain said at the time, adding that this was “evidence” of his album’s impact.

Next for T-Pain is a run of tour dates as part of his traveling Mansion in Wiscansin Party experience. After that, he’ll be out on the road with Pitbull.