He was born Faheem Rasheed Najm but he will forever be known a T-Pain. The rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and winner of the first season of ‘The Masked Singer’ is a pop-culture icon. Growing up in Tallahassee, Florida (the “T” in his name stands for his hometown), T-Pain joined the rap group Nappy Headz in 2004. Their cover of Akon’s “Locked Up” caught the attention of the rapper, leading Akon to sign T-Pain to his label. T-Pain released ‘Rappa Ternt Sanga’ in 2005, and the album reached No. 33 on the Billboard 200. In 2006, he released ‘Epiphany,’ and his sophomore release reached the top of the charts. It contained “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin),” a single that reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 (his highest charting solo single.) Since then, he has continued to record and release music His use of auto-tune substantially influenced hip-hop – and inspired Jay-Z to release “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune).”
