T-Pain › Lyrics

Ever since he admitted "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)," the music world has been n luv wit T-Pain. It took only two years the 24-year-old Tallahassee hit-maker (born Faheem Najm) to become a ubiquitous chart presence while being... Read More

Ever since he admitted "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)," the music world has been n luv wit T-Pain. It took only two years the 24-year-old Tallahassee hit-maker (born Faheem Najm) to become a ubiquitous chart presence while being featured on tracks with R. Kelly and Kanye West, among countless others. A member of Akon's Konvict Muzik stable, T-Pain has ushered vocoder-style vocal effects -- those mechanized voice tricks that make him sound part android -- back into the mainstream in a way that would make Roger Troutman proud.

The lyrics of "I'm N Luv Wit a Stripper," from T-Pain's 2005 debut "Rappa Ternt Sanga," detail the infatuation between customer and employee at a, shall we say, clothing optional nightclub. "Bartender," from 2007's "Epiphany," could well have been titled "I'm N Luv (Wit a Bartender)," since the words of the song weaved nearly the exact same story, but moved the action from the club's stage to its bar. (Could the coat check girls be next?)

To his credit, T-Pain actively seeks musical voids and aims to fill them with catchy anthems; with hip-hop flooded with booty songs, T crafted a love letter to the belly with his words in "Yo Stomach": "The way that she move her stomach put my mind back in Hawaii," he muses -- high praise from a Florida man. Though most of his lyrics revolve around parties and girls, he's not above getting rowdy, and "Church" is an angry ode, not to a house of worship but to brawling. For the most part, however, T-Pain is a luv-er, not a fighter.