T-Pain is working on a new album, titled Stoicville. He told FADER he's "got 127 songs" recorded so far. Today, he's sharing the first of that bounty, Stoicville's titular intro track. It's a nearly six-minute confessional spectacle, hollered crystal clear, *without* Auto-Tune.
"I feel like people needed to know what I've been doing," T-Pain told FADER. "A lot of people have been asking, and it's kind of hard to put the story into just one answer. So 'Stoicville' is a quick tell-all—airing everything out and letting my past be the past and basically starting anew."
On November 4, T-Pain released a Greatest Hits album via RCA, just days after a video of his stripped-down performance for NPR's Tiny Desk series went viral. "I was not familiar with Tiny Desk," he said. "I guess I surprised a lot of people. But it was pretty normal for me! I try to sing live as much as possible and any time someone asks me to sing on TV or radio I always do. A lot of people were saying T-Pain sings without Auto-Tune for the first time—I guess people just don't look into things."
He said he was thankful to get "more recognition" in the wake of the NPR video. "There was a time that a lot of people just didn't care to know whether I was talented or not anymore, once I got pigeonholed as the Auto-Tune guy and the whole epidemic of 'Auto-Tune sucks' became a thing. People dislike things because it's popular to dislike things. I know people that just say they don't like Nickelback cause the internet says you're not supposed to. You've never heard a Nickelback song in your life. You don't know if you like Nickelback!" For the record, T-Pain is a fan. "I do like Nickelback," he said.
T-Pain said the idea for a Greatest Hits album was not his own, and that he's more eager to create new songs than celebrate old ones."It wasn't my idea at all," he said. "It was the label. I found out I was putting out a Greatest Hits album cause I went on my phone and saw that I could preorder it! Not to sound like a dick or anything, but I got way more than 13 hits. I would have rather put out a Greatest Hits album next year cause I got signed in 2005, it would have a been a good 10 year anniversary, and if anything, it could have said 'A Greatest Hits So Far.' Cause I'm far from done. I still haven't made my greatest hit yet." Here's to many more.
