2016 was the launch year of T-Pain’s Twitch channel.ar and at the same time Pain remembers being trolled for the first time. “My music career was kind of on a downward spiral back then,” he says during our Zoom call this Monday. “People would come to my chat and tell me things like, ‘You’re listening to music because you don’t have money anymore.’ It wasn’t true, but he came home because I was thinking the same shit.

T-Pain is now CEO Nappy Boy GameA passionate part of the media empire he founded in 2006 Nappy Boy Fun. It works and chooses its members broadcast teamincludes big cheese and grandmother. When NBG started, he wasn’t used to being trolled. But he has experience with recoil—some of which you may remember best from when he was the guy who sang on the radio with Auto-Tune.

Faheem Najm was born in Tallahassee, Florida (artist’s name means “Tallahassee Pain”) because he struggled while living there), T-Pain started making music as soon as his 10-year-old hands allowed it. He was only 20 when he released his first single. “I’m flexible,” It was certified platinum in 2006. This song brightens Pain’s voice with its extreme pitch correction and then becomes a hit like 2007’s. “Barman” And “Buy UA Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” contains the same Auto Tuned pitches.

He was always devoted to his art. He would take games like this as an example. Streets of Rage 2 And Golden Eye 007 (“Oh my God, 1998, this path come back,” he says, laughing). Using Auto-Tune never sounds robotic (“Kids today can’t understand what it’s like to sing to a fan and try to sound like T-Pain,” says a YouTube commentary with over 20,000 upvotes), sounds like this: T-Pain , nice metallic, jingling sound a pair of $400,000 diamond necklaces. He became a coveted sound reproduced by other club managers of the 2000s. the black Eyed Peas and Keshaand even still by big rappers and alternative pop stars Travis Scott, Lil YachtAnd Charlie XCX.

However, initially, Pain’s peers were reluctant to credit him. Usher told him at one point: he ruined the musicand Jay-Z bitterly called “DOA (Death of Auto-Tune)” with their 2009 song (“This shit is fierce / This is Auto-Tune’s death, the moment of silence”). The collective response led to a “dropped out” depressive episode. [T-Pain] unmotivated to make more music, ”a New Yorker profile it says from 2014 but fog lifted around this timeThis coincides with Pain’s first exposure to Twitch streaming at a PlayStation event in 2013.

Read more: Your Favorite Musician Goes Live on Twitch

He had a “feeling like I’m not alone” and realized that watching broadcasts was a social and satisfying alternative to playing alone in his room or being stranded on a plane or on stage with no other people to connect with.

He tells me he’s “taking the reins”. [his] He started his own channel in 2016 and eventually set up his own broadcast team as he wanted to.

“I saw Markiplier watching BigCheese,” T-Pain says, “and I immediately had the feeling that I needed to create something where I could use my name and my platform to get this guy seen. I need to covet this guy more. I was like, ‘I need to create a gaming organization.'”

“It was a bit of a whim,” he admits, but sticking with it in part because he likes to be on the broadcast team and keep the sense of wonder video games give him.

It was difficult in the beginning. It turns out that internet commentators have inherited Jay-Z’s objections to T-Pain’s career.

“The negativity comes to the fore too much,” she says of her first round of hate comments. “I was yelling at my house and getting mad at my wife for nothing because these goddamn bastards are talking nonsense on Twitter. She’s telling everyone, ‘Don’t talk to me today, this guy on Twitch said I was an old fashioned’.”

However, as anyone online should learn, anonymous losers in your comments section have learned that you can’t be trusted.

“This was when I got 200 viewers, that was the best for me, that was big for me. When most viewers say ‘you’re on the air because you don’t have money anymore’, […] I’m starting to feel like this. […] But I realized that these are terrible people.”

He once concluded “fuck those guys”. Nevermind. Let’s get back to our regularly scheduled schedule,” she said, dedicating herself to flow and nourishment. this curiosity quotes TimTheTatman, Moistcritikal (“that’s the damn dude”) and virtual YouTuber CodeMiko (“there’s a whole $10,000 system sitting in my game room doing nothing because I found out because). [motion capture] there were more instructions than I thought”) as streamers he’s a fan of. It’s clear that he likes flow as a discipline.

You can also tell from decades of interviews, podcast appearances. and music– During our conversation, I noticed too – T-Pain likes to laugh. slides to burst Hahaha!This may be the reason why he is so successful on Twitch, where he has close to 900 thousand followers. it’s obvious Beautiful.

Tabloids and DeuxMoi mostly made us believe that celebrities can be like that. beautiful, unconditional, but T-Pain is undeniably spreading Charisma. HE they have very interesting stories to tell and you are happy to let time pass while you sit and listen.

For example, in 2021, he told his audience about the meeting Prince’s bassist. She phoned him so T-Pain and Prince could introduce themselves., but Prince said instead, “Where have you been man, we’ve been playing for an hour!” as soon as you get it.

The bassist said, “hey man, sorry about that but man, it’s T-Pain right here.” Prince said, ‘I don’t want to talk to a goddamn T-Pain,'” T-Pain remembers, giggling so hard that he has to take off his earphones for a second. It starts a chain reaction – everyone in the room crackles up and so does everyone watching at home. “’Brother, it’s okay!’ I was like”

He talks to the audience as if we were all together at the bar; While he is eager to light up the world for everyone, he does not act with the impunity of someone who has influenced two decades of popular music. He does this a lot – only streamed for six hours other dayWhile chatting, she browses YouTube and studies her music, asks her innocent questions, the children talk to their teachers. “What’s your favorite music video?”

He is eager to entertain subscribers in endless ways with insider looks. how does he make music play battlefield 1, Fortniteracing games with a steering wheel control, Call of Duty… anything that really comes into your hands. The NBG team is similarly eclectic; Red Dead Redemption full granny drag or Cardboard Cowboy, showing viewers hours of custom animations before making the final decision play what’s left of us.

T-Pain’s drive to support and grow the creators he once adored has proven to be long-lasting. He continues to guide Nappy Boy Gaming. As for adding new broadcasters to NBG’s roster, “I’m still looking for people who wouldn’t be seen otherwise,” he says.

T-Pain likes streamers that sound like pure fun. Good people. “I’ve been researching Twitch and watching people and if I run into you and see that you might need some help, or if you have low views and I think you deserve more… that’s it. That’s how you sign up for Nappy Boy Gaming.”

“You don’t need to be really good at games [to get signed to NBG],” he continues. “You have to be a good person who likes to make people laugh and raise people up. Just don’t be a jerk”

T-Pain has a real taste for broadcasting, but there’s also material to be gained from him. famous idiot said Steve-O on his podcast last year A lot of money on Twitchand in fact, he said, “I make more money from video games than I’ve made in the last four years.” But he doesn’t stick with Nappy Boy Gaming just because he needs money – he’s constantly adding streamers to his roster, chatting with subscribers for hours. Not to brag, but he’s fine.

“This is not my main issue. There are other ways to make money. That’s fine,” he says, but claims that if he devoted all his time to streaming, he claims it would be something like $60,000 an hour, and it’s okay. But what may be more important to T-Pain is that he helped NBG complete its belated quest for legitimation. NBG says its success is due to its wide recognition by the gaming industry.

“We just made an activation Last night with Ubisoft. Not having Ubisoft say, ‘We have T-Pain to play our game,’ they said, ‘We have Nappy Boy Gaming to play our game,’ they said, you know, to be recognized as an organization and not just get people to be like, ‘We’re fine now, we’ve got a guy to steal our shit. we have a rapper […] It is success that crowns him.” “He’s not just someone we think is famous. This isn’t just a celebrity endorsement. Nappy Boy Gaming. That’s the biggest achievement for me, it’s just that that thing is separate.”

The game helped T-Pain, once arrogantly shouldered by his industry, reach an unconventional but still triumphant climax. Besides using his already earned fame for a good cause, that’s enough for him.

“I want people to be able to say, ‘This was fun,’ when I finally leave this world. He was a damn good guy, he’s helped a lot of people,” he says, his relaxed laughter spreading again like falling marbles.

“That’s all I really want. I don’t have any other achievements or anything like that that I really want. I want the people I help to feel the same way I do.”