T-Pain Claims One Nasty Comment From Usher About His Music In 2013 Spiraled Him Into A Four-Year Depression

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  • T-Pain resurrected the use of Auto-Tune in music that was originally established in 1997, with the mechanism used in many of his chart-topping singles.
  • Usher is a stark adversary of the music hack, and confronted T-Pain on a flight to the BET Awards in 2013.
  • T-Pain claims the one comment sent him down a four-year path of depression.

Vulnerability isn’t a recognized currency in the hip hop world. Fiscal irresponsibility, sex-having, and alpha posturing is likely to advance your career far more in the biz than revealing that you cried during Manchester By The Sea. 

Two-time Grammy award winner T-Pain gifted the world with a rare moment of fragility when discussing a 2013 interaction he had with Usher on a flight to the BET Awards.

T-Pain popularized the use of Auto-Tune pitch correction, an audio processor used to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances. Not only has T-Pain used the mechanism in many of his 50 chart-topping singles, other artists like Snoop Dogg (Sexual Eruption), Lil Wayne (Lollipop), and Kanye West (808s & Heartbreak) began following suit.

Usher, a “traditional” artist, is evidently a huge adversary of the music hack, and one comment he flung at T-Pain in 2013 sent the artist spiraling.

“We were going to the 2013 BET Awards. We were all in first class. I was awakened by the flight attendant. She said, ‘Usher would like to talk to you in the back.’

So I got up and went back, quick small talk. No big deal.

Then he was like, ‘I want to tell you something, man.’ He sounded real concerned.

He was like, ‘Man you kind of fucked up music.’

I didn’t understand. Usher was my friend. He was like, ‘You really fucked up music for real singers.’

Literally at that point, I couldn’t listen. Is he right? Did I fuck up music? And that is the very moment, I don’t even think I realized this for a very long time, that’s the very moment that started a four year depression for me.”

The clip above has been viewed more than 3 million times and suffice it to say, Usher hasn’t made any new friends today.

Usher go back to dancing in the rain. T-Pain slander is strictly prohibited.

Matt Keohan Avatar
Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.