T-Pain Doesn't Think Kanye West Uses Auto-Tune 'Correctly'

T-Pain Says Kanye West Doesn't Use Auto-Tune 'Correctly'

To call the rise of Auto-Tune and the rise of T-Pain's popularity synonymous would be an understatement of the highest degree. While others used the tool before T-Pain, no one manipulated the sound the way he did, which led to a flurry of hit singles and successful albums for the 29-year-old artist.

Naturally, success brought imitation. In a HuffPost Live interview on Tuesday, he said only two of those imitators — Jamie Foxx and Chris Brown — use Auto-Tune correctly, in his mind.

"When people hear Auto-Tune, they know that it's used so much for a crutch. I use it to turn my voice into an instrument. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of guys that use Auto-Tune that cannot sing. The only person I heard use it correctly, like I use it, was Chris Brown and Jamie Foxx," T-Pain said.

When asked about Kanye West — who famously made an entire album, "808s and Heartbreak," with Auto-Tune — Pain said that while West makes good music with the tool, he just doesn't use it right.

"Kanye uses it, but he doesn't use it correctly. He makes great music with it, but the way that I use it and the way that I've shown Chris and Jamie to use it, he doesn't use it that way," he said. "He sings without it first, and then he puts it on it. ... You don't know how it's going to come out. You can't catch your mistakes before that happens. Sometimes he gets a little wobbly and things like that."

Pain, who helped West on "808s," clarified that the album is "pretty good" about Auto-Tune usage because of his help. T-Pain also likened it to his own debut album, "Rappa Ternt Sanga."

"That was pretty good because I had a lot to do with that. '808s and Heartbreak' is 'Rappa Ternt Sanga.' He told me 'Rappa Ternt Sanga' is just a bunch of love songs with a gang of bass. Which is '808s and Heartbreak.'"

West has made two solo albums ("My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and "Yeezus") since "808s," and both have used Auto-Tune throughout the record.

Catch the rest of the clip above, and watch the full HuffPost Live conversation here.

Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live's new morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before!

Before You Go

1
“If I had the opportunity to design for Louis Vuttion now, I wouldn’t. Because the prices are too extreme. And I don’t want to use my message to have kids saving up that much to be a part of what the ideas are.”
2
“React how you want. Any energy you got is good energy. I represented slavery, my abstract take on what I know about it, I wrote ‘New Slaves.’ So I took the Confederate flag and made it my flag. What are you going to do?”
3
“Obama? Nobody’s looking at what Obama is wearing. I’m the No. 1 inspirational person in fashion.”
4
“In music I talk a lot of stuff. But I’ll never get up here and say, ‘I’m the best musician’ or ‘the best rapper of all-time.’”
5
“I love the Backstreet Boys — no knock to them — but there will never be another Backstreet Boys."
6
"I didn’t have a phone for three years. When I got my phone is when I saw Kim on the internet with Kris Humphries.”
7
"You know what should be banned? Stuff that’s whack, not stuff that’s controversial. The world is controversial, classist, racist — so what."
8
“What would happen if I was able to design a collection that was backed by the Gap? It would be awesome, right?”
9
“I just thought of it. It seemed so all-American, I just love being American, you know, and I love you know, family… I feel so blessed. I feel God gave me exactly what I wanted, I have to do the right thing in God’s eyes. Just follow what God really wants me to do it will come ten fold by doing the right thing.”

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot