T-Pain f/ Teddy Verseti - "Church" (mp3)
I had pretty high hopes for T-Pain's new album, despite the fact that I hadn't really liked any of his solo singles to date (I only actively dislike "Buy U A Drank," am kind of ambivalent to "I'm Sprung" and "Bartender," and warmed to "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)" after the remix). Mostly the guy grew on me because of his increasingly great string of guest appearances on remixes, from his melodic twists and turns on "I'm A Flirt" to the evil robot "ah-AH" bit on "Pop, Lock & Drop It" to the scene-stealing "Two Step" verse. There aren't many artists in hip hop/R&B I have more disdain for than good rappas ternt mediocre sangas like Mos Def and Andre 3000, but T-Pain, who doesn't come off as being particularly good at either, pulls off the transition with charm and none of their pretension.
I talked a little about his self-deprecating sad T-Panda act on ILM a while back, and that brutal MTV interview: "For him to be calling me, he could have called anybody. He could have called Akon! But he called the dude that everybody says looks like the neighborhood weed man. Everybody is dissing me, they don't like my music, they don't like how I look, 'he can't sing,' and Bow called that person? You can't imagine how that feels." I hope having a #1 single and album since then have helped him get over some of that insecurity. The artist he's referring to, btw, is Bow Wow, and "Outta My System" totally would've been my "wow, T-Pain really can sing!" moment if not for the fact that it's actually Johnta Austin emoting on the 3rd verse.
But anyway, it turns out that Epiphany is a pretty damn good album (once you get past that intro where he reads the definition of the word "epiphany" out of a dictionary, which is like my least favorite way to explain an album's title ever, although I'm not sure who else has done it before). And surprisingly, he does a fair amount of singing (and rapping) without any Antares autotuning, which will hopefully help people get past his admittedly well-earned gimmick status. And that's why I'm really hoping that he follows through on his promise to make "Church" the album's third single, as he's said according to Wikipedia. I'd love for him to come out with such an amped-up, fast-paced, batshit crazy single after so many sleepy snap songs,and one in which he really raps, even if the raps are by one of his indistinguishable alter-egos (hopefully we won't get an ill-advised T-Pain Vs. Teddy Verseti Vs. Teddy Pain Vs. Teddy Penderazdoun concept album somewhere down the line).
The whole album is full of minor pleasures besides "Church," though, from the great Shawnna feature on "Backseat Action" (another one that sound be a single) to the wistful closer "Sounds Bad." I'm really impressed by the range of the production, considering that he did every beat on the album. I mused a couple weeks ago about whether someone as bland and earnest as Ne-Yo was fit to pick up R. Kelly's mantle as the dominant auteur of radio R&B. But it turns out that Kells has been trying to tell us all along that T-Pain really is funny and creative and weird enough to hang with him, and Epiphany is full of quirks and tricks that still feel fresh, where Double Up, even at its best, is full of material that can't help but feel overly familiar to anyone who's heard a Kelly album before.
I had pretty high hopes for T-Pain's new album, despite the fact that I hadn't really liked any of his solo singles to date (I only actively dislike "Buy U A Drank," am kind of ambivalent to "I'm Sprung" and "Bartender," and warmed to "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)" after the remix). Mostly the guy grew on me because of his increasingly great string of guest appearances on remixes, from his melodic twists and turns on "I'm A Flirt" to the evil robot "ah-AH" bit on "Pop, Lock & Drop It" to the scene-stealing "Two Step" verse. There aren't many artists in hip hop/R&B I have more disdain for than good rappas ternt mediocre sangas like Mos Def and Andre 3000, but T-Pain, who doesn't come off as being particularly good at either, pulls off the transition with charm and none of their pretension.
I talked a little about his self-deprecating sad T-Panda act on ILM a while back, and that brutal MTV interview: "For him to be calling me, he could have called anybody. He could have called Akon! But he called the dude that everybody says looks like the neighborhood weed man. Everybody is dissing me, they don't like my music, they don't like how I look, 'he can't sing,' and Bow called that person? You can't imagine how that feels." I hope having a #1 single and album since then have helped him get over some of that insecurity. The artist he's referring to, btw, is Bow Wow, and "Outta My System" totally would've been my "wow, T-Pain really can sing!" moment if not for the fact that it's actually Johnta Austin emoting on the 3rd verse.
But anyway, it turns out that Epiphany is a pretty damn good album (once you get past that intro where he reads the definition of the word "epiphany" out of a dictionary, which is like my least favorite way to explain an album's title ever, although I'm not sure who else has done it before). And surprisingly, he does a fair amount of singing (and rapping) without any Antares autotuning, which will hopefully help people get past his admittedly well-earned gimmick status. And that's why I'm really hoping that he follows through on his promise to make "Church" the album's third single, as he's said according to Wikipedia. I'd love for him to come out with such an amped-up, fast-paced, batshit crazy single after so many sleepy snap songs,and one in which he really raps, even if the raps are by one of his indistinguishable alter-egos (hopefully we won't get an ill-advised T-Pain Vs. Teddy Verseti Vs. Teddy Pain Vs. Teddy Penderazdoun concept album somewhere down the line).
The whole album is full of minor pleasures besides "Church," though, from the great Shawnna feature on "Backseat Action" (another one that sound be a single) to the wistful closer "Sounds Bad." I'm really impressed by the range of the production, considering that he did every beat on the album. I mused a couple weeks ago about whether someone as bland and earnest as Ne-Yo was fit to pick up R. Kelly's mantle as the dominant auteur of radio R&B. But it turns out that Kells has been trying to tell us all along that T-Pain really is funny and creative and weird enough to hang with him, and Epiphany is full of quirks and tricks that still feel fresh, where Double Up, even at its best, is full of material that can't help but feel overly familiar to anyone who's heard a Kelly album before.
Labels: hip hop
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