T.I. & T-Pain Talk Burnout, Fame, Alcoholism and Why Success Almost Broke Him

Hey, say what's happening, man? This is Tip Harris, host of Expeditionally. Now you know you can watch on Spotify and Spotify Premium. Guess what? Users get no commercials on my show. So pull up. Check us out. This is Expeditionally. I am Tip T.I. Harris. Uh-huh. Now, the following experience is not a test. The conversations and stories expressed on this podcast are meant to be an expression of purpose and truth. This show, properly entitled Expeditionally, is a free exchange of ideas and opinions. No judgment, no preconceived beliefs, no fear. You're encouraged to share your thoughts and ask any question as long as it's done with respect. And it's through true love and respect for others that we will change the world and speak truth to power, one show at a time. Now, without further ado, this is Expeditionally. I'm Tip T.I. Harris. Hey, what's happening? I'm Tip Harris, your host here at Expeditionally. Now, I guess today is truly a music podcast. I'm a pioneer whose influence can be heard across nearly every corner of modern music. Over the past two decades, he's redefined what it means to be an artist, producer, songwriter, and entertainer. With multiple chart-typing singles, countless platinum-selling records, and collaborations with some of the biggest names in music, he helped create a sound and it transformed hip-hop and R&B, also wide-transforming pop culture. He's worked with artists like Chris Brown, Kanye West, Ludacris, Glow Rilla, Kay Linen, Meghan Trainor, Lil Wayne, Jamie Foxx, and recently myself, just to name a few. He's a seven-time Grammy Award winner with Grammy-winning collaborations including Good Life and Blame It. He's earned more than 28 BMI Awards. Was that right? Mm-hmm. Okay. He's earned more than 28 BMI Awards, including multiple Songwriter of the Year honors. In 2023, he received the prestigious Soul Train Legend Award. And in 2025, he was honored with the BMI President's Award for his extraordinary influence on songwriting and music innovation, just to name a few. But awards only tell half of the story. We're going to get into a conversation with him today and find out what's going on with him. He's one of the artists that will be on my last album, Kill the King. Please welcome my partner, T-Pain, to Expedition. How's it going, brother? How you doing, man? What's happening, King? I'm good. How many of these do you do a day? Man, it depends on the day. Oh, boy. This is the only one today I happen to have a busy day ahead of me. But it was important for me to get this done. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Man, I always wanted to know, where did the name T-Pain come from? I'm so glad you asked that first, because I got something I want to ask you, too. The name T-Pain, basically, my rap name when I started rapping, it was awful. It was Mr. Torturer. Mr. Torturer. Yeah. No, it was Mr. Torturer. Mr. Torturer. Yeah. Even harder to say. Now, where did that name come from? It just sounded tough. I was 14. It sounded like a tough thing. Nobody else was going to say it, because they couldn't say it. But, yeah, my homie Birdchest Johnson. Birdchest. He has a hell of a name himself. Birdchest Johnson. Equally awful name. But, no, he actually helped me get started doing music. Actually, my first time recording was over at his house. And, you know, when we started rapping together, he was like, I'm not calling you Mr. Torturer. I got something else. I had to call you something else. So, he came up with T-Pain, and then I transformed that into Tallahassee Pain. So, yeah. Yeah, man. My question for you, though. Teddy Pain. My question for you. What's up? Because I recently just found out now, T.I. I'm just going to take the guess here. I'm not going to make you go through the whole story. Go ahead. Is that short for targeted individual? No. God damn it. Absolutely not. That would be fucking cool, though. No. That's a thing now. You know, T.I. They call people T.I. You know what? You know what, like, gang surveillance is? Stuff like that. Like, when a big body of people are, like, watching you all the time. Yeah, like a Rico. Kind of that. So, that. But the person that is being watched is called a T.I. Yeah, well. It's a targeted individual. Yeah, I don't. In hip-hop, we've all been targeted individuals. Be a lot cooler if you did. Nah, man. T.I. actually has no significant meaning at all. Okay. I was. So, my name. It's T.I.P., as you know, and I always spelled it out, T.I.P., especially, like, when I was freestyling and stuff. Ah. And when L.A. sold LaFace and became the president of Arista, he was, at that time, responsible for a roster of other artists, one of which being Q-Tip. Okay. Ah, so you started calling both of y'all T.I. Yeah, so my album was, you know. We were getting ready to be released, and Q-Tip was, you know, fresh off Vibrant thing, and you know what I'm saying? Probably one of the hottest artists on the label at the time, and L.A. and them were like, yo, we can't have two Timps. Okay. You know what I'm saying? You should find another name, and I was like, man, I don't have no name. This is the only name I've gone by. It's not a label problem or anything. And then L.A. was like, okay, well, we'll wait. I was like, well, one of us is going to have to change. I was like, ah, that's dumb. That's dumb. And so T.I. really just came from K.P. Like, hey, man, why don't you just say T.I. and, you know what I'm saying, say the P. And that's where that came from. Okay. Which is why, you know, I have such a duality of T.I. versus T.I.P. True, yeah. To me, T.I. is everything I had to change about myself in order to, you know, to be in the industry. Yeah. And Tip is everything that I always was before I came in it. As it was. Um, but yeah, man, uh, you, you have mastered the art of auto-tune. Mastered is tough. Yeah. I mean, you're probably one of the toughest motherfuckers I know to do it. Uh, yeah. You know, you got to go to Roger Troutman or, uh, um, or got, uh, Teddy Riley or somebody. Yeah, yeah. Well, those, you know, that's, that's, that's talk box and vocoder. So you had to actually know how to play and sing at the same time. So mine was like the lazy version of that. But I think, I think I've, I think I just understood it more. Than everybody else, because I actually looked into the science of it. I actually was looking for it. And not only that, but when I used it, I was the artist and the engineer. So I knew what had to happen in order to make it sound like it did sound. So I think I had a lot more insight instead of just, Hey, I got, I wrote some, I wrote some lyrics down, throw auto-tune on it and see if it sounds good. I actually knew how to make it sound good and how to make it sound like it needed to in order to do it. So being the engineer helped out a lot. Okay. Okay. Actually knowing what the knobs do. A hundred percent. Yeah. You gotta, you gotta be able to do that. Yeah. So becoming the face of auto-tune and really kind of defining the sound of an era. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How did you feel about, you know, the criticism that came from that? I mean, at first I didn't, you know, nobody knows how to process that, you know, having the whole world coming at you at one time, you know, saying that, Hey, that, that new thing you're doing is too different. We don't like it. You know, we like the song, but. For some reason, we don't, we're not, we're not, we're not too tough with you. So it felt like an attack on me and I, and it was more of an attack on change as I grow up and I, you know, become more mature and I can actually process and think about these things. It was the change. It was the, the, the threat to the people that, uh, relied on everybody liking the current sound. Right. So once I come in and I change that and everybody wants to shift now, the people that rely on that and make it their whole identity is, you know, of course there's going to be some backlash from them. But, you know, the rest of the world was just following suit, you know, uh, you know, I feel like, you know, even down to the least, you know, to the least popular, to the most popular people, they have their fan bases and people are going to follow who they, you know, who they respect more and who they actually look up to more. So, you know, that, that it's going to become a public discourse because, you know, the people that they actually respect, uh, you know, go, go that route. I understand. Yeah. Did you have, uh, any like direct, uh, I guess, uh, did it feel different when it was people that you knew within the industry that was saying these things? Uh, at the time, at the time. Yeah. Because I did, because I wasn't trying to look at things from different sides. When I figured out that, Hey, yeah, I would've, I would've felt pretty bad about that too. I would've felt threatened. I would've felt like, you know, my way of life is getting, is getting, you know, kind of thrown off of its tracks. Uh, yeah, that's a, that's a pretty, pretty standard response. I mean, I always wondered like how you felt like when you heard Death of Auto-Tune. Oh, that sucked. That sucked. That sucked. That sucked. You know, coming, you know, it was, uh, you know, cause I'm, I'm a Jay-Z fan still to this day. Like, you know what I'm saying? And, you know, one of my favorite songs from him was, you know, Can't Knock the Hustle. Right. And, you know, getting my hustle knocked was not, was not, wasn't on my bingo card. Uh. So, but, you know, it was devastating at the time. But again, that was another way of like, hey man, you know, y'all let me, let me do, let me do what I'm doing. Hey, I'm still over here. It wasn't a call to guilty pain. It was like, hey guys, I'm still, I'm still me now. I'm still Jay-Z. Y'all don't get too caught up with that, with that shit over there. Ain't gonna last too long. And, you know, you come back to, come back to what you know. Now I'm Jay-Z. So, you know, it, it felt, it felt slighted at the, at the time, but as, as time went on and maturity became a thing in my life at some point. But I think. It takes a while. Yeah, it takes a long time. it takes a long time you know uh you know especially coming up in a culture that encourages immaturity you know what i mean so it uh it took a while but i did i did understand 100 percent a bunch of times i see them everywhere i have no idea how we keep ending up in the same places that's a great sign that's a fantastic sign but yeah it just came down to me not understanding how to process somebody else's feelings and looking at things from the other side and trying to see all sides of the situation before i was able to react man is it now something that the common miss the common misconception uh most people had uh is that you use auto-tune because you couldn't sing yeah yeah yeah but what people might not know is you have actually said that you you wouldn't use auto-tune in live performance i don't i still don't i still don't it sounds horrible what what came because i see a lot of my son used auto-tune and he performed i see artists rap artists yeah and so auto-tune the thing about auto-tune is it's designed to bring in one signal okay so if you're singing in the studio you can control it right you're singing in a in a live setting not only is the feedback from the speakers coming into your mic but everybody else that's singing is also so somebody in the front row singing off key the auto-tune is catching that too and it's going to throw the whole auto-tune off so you can be singing perfectly and you know if you buy yourself it's cool but the whole crowd is going to be you got to control it environment correct correct correct it's made for one one signal to be going into it so you know using it live uh actually kind of makes you sound worse yeah man you talked about introducing change you know uh and and you know being uh a champion of that is is there a musical trend today that you're hearing that reminds you of when you introduce auto-tune to the game uh i wouldn't say in our culture uh nothing that's like sticking out to me but also i've kind of been weaning off of of you know i think i i think i know one okay i think i know one uh rapping off beat at first bro yeah at first when when you hear it at first you're like man what the fuck is this yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and and then you know as you're like oh that shit worked yeah yeah oh it worked again with the with the rapping off beat i think it's the same it's the same uh it's the same distance from when we started rapping fast so when when we started rapping fast and it came from you know 80s and 90s rap and then all the 80s and 90s rappers were like what is this nigga saying his niggas rapping too fast you can't understand these niggas and then we got into mobile rappers like what the fuck is this nigga saying but the thing that you know the thing that i you know i always looked at is um mumble rap you know they are expressing they're conveying messages it's just if you ain't hip to the lingo you won't know so that's like so i think you know kind of so i think that's a that's a part of it but i think um i think in in our culture uh a big thing with our music is carelessness so i think that you know and this is a subconscious thing nobody's gonna be like you know what are you right nobody's gonna say that but i think i think throughout the years we've gradually been out trying to not give a fuck each other you know what i mean so and so the more you're on who can put out the least amount of effort right because because i'm just cool as fuck and if you don't get it yeah you're just not cool it's just that so you know that comes to uh you know the story i like to reference with uh the scientists that came up with knowing that uh fat versus sugar was actually making people fat so remember uh back in the early 2000s late 90s everything was low fat right everything was low fat because they felt like you know the the marketing people was like if you say it's got fat in it you can tell people it makes you fat if you say it doesn't have fat in it it won't be fat the thing that was making people fat was the sugar right so a dude a scientist came out and said hey it's sugar it's not the fat it's sugar but the the fat guy the the person that came up with the fat theory no no no no no no it wasn't a fat guy well you had to you had to you know you got to put you got to put that shit on in order to market this thing so the guy that came up with the sentiment that fat made you fat was already more popular in that world so he was like who is this guy who is this nerd you gotta believe this nerd this guy's wearing glasses so he was like who is this guy who is this nerd you gotta believe this nerd these guys wearing glasses who is this guy who is this guy who is this nerd you gotta believe this nerd these guys wearing glasses who is this guy who is this guy wearing glasses so he made him so uncool that everybody was like so he made him so uncool that everybody was like so he made him so uncool that everybody was like yeah that can't be right sugar isn't right so yeah that can't be right sugar isn't right so yeah that can't be right sugar isn't right so it's the same sentiment when it's like guys it's the same sentiment when it's like guys it's the same sentiment when it's like guys what what are these guys saying what are they what what are these guys saying what are they what what are these guys saying what are they and then and then everybody else is like hey and then and then everybody else is like hey and then and then everybody else is like hey look he said you're just old so i'm just look he said you're just old so i'm just look he said you're just old so i'm just gonna believe that gonna believe that gonna believe that as i think back you know as i think back as i think back you know as i think back as i think back you know as i think back in musical history man like we didn't in musical history man like we didn't in musical history man like we didn't know know know what jane brown was saying all the time what jane brown was saying all the time what jane brown was saying all the time very true very true very true very true very true very true it's jane brown yeah yeah yeah it it's jane brown yeah yeah yeah it it's jane brown yeah yeah yeah it feels good you're gonna figure you're feels good you're gonna figure you're feels good you're gonna figure you're gonna figure it out it makes you feel so it makes you feel so it makes you feel so you're gonna figure it out man put the you're gonna figure it out man put the you're gonna figure it out man put the feeling the words that you think feeling the words that you think feeling the words that you think absolutely i never i still don't know absolutely i never i still don't know absolutely i never i still don't know what mama say mama sama what mama say mama sama what mama say mama sama i still don't know i still have no idea i still don't know i still have no idea i still don't know i still have no idea what that means but god damn it we sing what that means but god damn it we sing what that means but god damn it we sing it it was a reference track and he's laid it it was a reference track and he's laid it it was a reference track and he's laid the harmonies on a reference track the harmonies on a reference track uh you know kind of conforming to the uh you know kind of conforming to the uh you know kind of conforming to the thing i i take it to like when snoop uh thing i i take it to like when snoop uh thing i i take it to like when snoop uh snoop had ggn we just do a ggn and he snoop had ggn we just do a ggn and he snoop had ggn we just do a ggn and he was uh he had 50 on and he was talking was uh he had 50 on and he was talking was uh he had 50 on and he was talking about migos and he was like about migos and he was like about migos and he was like he's like what the is that man and he's like what the is that man and he's like what the is that man and right now snoop got like six songs right now snoop got like six songs right now snoop got like six songs doing that doing that doing that so it's like you you either you either so it's like you you either you either so it's like you you either you either you either adjust or die it's the change you either adjust or die it's the change you either adjust or die it's the change it's the change and people don't like it's the change and people don't like it's the change and people don't like that that they have to change because that that they have to change because that that they have to change because everything's worked so well it's a everything's worked so well it's a everything's worked so well it's a pretty girl getting called ugly for the pretty girl getting called ugly for the pretty girl getting called ugly for the first time that's gonna be first time that's gonna be first time that's gonna be devastating devastating devastating you're gonna this girl's gonna kill you're gonna this girl's gonna kill you're gonna this girl's gonna kill herself herself herself you don't nobody wants to change hey you don't nobody wants to change hey you don't nobody wants to change hey that hairstyle from 11th grade don't that hairstyle from 11th grade don't that hairstyle from 11th grade don't work no more baby work no more baby work no more baby you got you you still fine i get it you you got you you still fine i get it you you got you you still fine i get it you in the club fantastic but you got to in the club fantastic but you got to in the club fantastic but you got to change some stuff up when you hit your change some stuff up when you hit your prime that wasn't gonna be it it's it's it's it's high school football players it's the it's the jock from high school still hitting the club at at 45 like hey i'm still i'm still the guy and like no you're not you don't fit that jacket no more the varsity jacket though you got to let it go bro you know nobody wants to change man because when they get to a certain level and things work back to back to back to back to back you can't change that for people and if you come and say hey did y'all notice this guy's been doing the same thing for this long and then he's like hey hey don't fucking tell them what the hell what are you talking about so it's all it's all i think that's called arrested development yeah yeah it's called arrested development but you get stuck in a period of time that that was so good to you yeah you just you just stayed there yeah and that and here's the thing that's fine the thing that's not fine is trying to make everybody else stay there too like the thing is when people say all right we good we ready to move on to this next person and once you start saying that shit ain't cool right this is the cool shit that's when it becomes a problem stay in your period love yourself love just like hey i like this jacket this is fucking cool but the problem persists when you say i like this jacket and all of y'all should like it too you know that that's that's an interesting topic because as i i've i've looked searched and studied you know um and it seems that every uh every person a group of people that fought change yeah lost 100 yeah i mean 100 it's it's not gonna yeah it's change is inevitable you know inevitable evolution is is mandatory 100 you know um so i think the ability to welcome the change yeah yeah and the flow with the change uh find your way to you know yeah to exist within the chain yeah uh i think that's you know that's a part of growth of course where people are getting caught up right now is the influx of uh the speed of change it's not it's not it's crazy it's it's easier to change now and it's easier to get a flock of people to fly a different way you know you can't uh you can't stay so stuck on things you know that because it worked there's no way to change for you like you found something that worked you got to find a way to adapt that to something else like when people ask me who my favorite whatever sports team is i say whoever paying me to do the halftime show i'm not gonna stay stuck on nobody i love it baby hey bring me up show me where the stage is give me a microphone go team i wear your jersey till i get out that bit somebody else say hey that was a great job come do it for us absolutely you mentioned you mentioned performing and uh you and i we we spent we spent some time together in oh yeah australia yeah man that was dope that was that was probably one of my favorite tours yeah we had a good time It's good to be around people that's, I don't want to say like-minded, but that's open-minded enough to exchange philosophies and perspectives and ideas on music, social, you know what I mean? 100%. It was me, you, Pham. Trey Songz. Trey Songz. Yeah, we had a good time. We had a great time. We had a good time. That was awesome. And then, man, we were pulled to go back out and tour again. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What happened with that? And then, I think you said you got tired of everything. Oh, that was then. That was then. Yes, absolutely. You got tired of everything. You said, fuck the tour. It was- I'll be at home. Y'all call me later. It was time, man. What happened? I felt it coming. I felt a breakdown coming. I felt that moment where you start seeing niggas in the street in their drawers. What? I felt it coming. The Martin Lawrence moment. I felt it coming. I was like, you know what? If I force myself to do this one more time, I'm going to lose it. Dang. And then people going, it's just going to be all on me because I should have just known my, you know, the state of my mental health. I should have known when to say no. I should, you know. So, it was just time. It was time to take a break. I hadn't taken a break since probably 2010 because of, you know, hitting the bottom of the financial stature. So, I was trying to come back up just saying yes to everything, you know. I was doing the Rick Ross method of just saying yes to everything. Just, you know. Now, what makes that the Rick Ross method? Well, no. Well, he blatantly out said it because everybody thought he charged like a million dollars for everything. Yeah. And then he said, oh, I'll take $25,000, $100,000. We'll make it up somewhere else. I will say it. I won't. Yeah. I will not. So, yeah. So, that was the. You'd give her an opinion on that. That's why I said it was the Rick Ross method. I don't know anybody else that do that. You set a price and that's pretty much. That's pretty much what it is. So, at the time, I was just like, whatever. Yeah. Just give me the money. Make up for it in opportunity or let's do a string of these and make it to the price that I want. So, since 2010, I was doing that. I was just going and going and going and going and just, you know, opportunities turned into bigger opportunities and things like that. But it was, it came to a head when it was just like I didn't have time for my health at all. And it was like. I was just like, I need to meditate or anything like that. But I came up with a system that I was trying to slow down drinking. And I said, here's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to drink unless I'm free the next day or I'm not about to be on camera today or not. Like, I came up with all these contingencies to where I was like, OK, I can drink if it never came. It never happened. I never got to get a drink. And I was like, damn, this is tough. You know, so I was like, you know, I was like, man, I would at least be able to like get a get a sip in every now and then. And it literally it turned into just me straight up not drink. I haven't had a drink since January 7th. Like, you know what I mean? And coming from straight up alcoholism to not drinking at all. You had many drinks. Yes. A ton of drinks. So going from that and trying to implement that system, it just was like, you know what? Never mind. I'm not even going to try. Not no more. Yeah. So, you know, it helped. Do you think it helped your state of mind? It helped meetings, I guess. You know, it made me a little softer. I know that I don't fire people as quickly, I guess. Damn. That could be a positive or a negative. It could be both. You know, depends on what side of the side of the corporation you're on. Now, tell me when you when you say you felt a breakdown coming, what affects you the most about about, I guess, the industry? Or or you're the celebrity of it? Is it the touring? Is it the interviews? Is it the fans? No, I actually like all that stuff. It's the it's it's your passion turning into a job. That's what it was. And it was it went from it's like when you got your first car. OK. You wanted to drive everywhere. You wanted to drive to Optima. You'll drive from here to California on a day's notice until people started telling you to go somewhere. Oh, until people started asking you, can you take me to this place until everything about your car turned into everybody else needing to go somewhere and not you can't get to your spots anymore. You like, hey, what do you want to do? I'm about to head to Jig House real quick. Hey, can you take me to this place on your way? Well, I mean, I'm gonna miss my appointment. It's on the way. It's on the way. And then you get to their spot and then you run out of gas and, you know, they just get out and go to what they were doing. That's, you know, that's. Which is how it was like when you got when your mom was even at a smaller age, a younger age, when your mom got a vacuum cleaner, you want to vacuum clean the whole house. Until she asked you. Until she asked you to vacuum the whole house. It turned into that because it turned into me having all these having all these ideas, these dreams, these aspirations and never getting to get to them. But making everybody else dreams come true, making everybody else career coming to fruition. Everybody else, everybody else dreams and passions and everything gets facilitated through me. And I never got to do. So at that point, I wasn't saying I quit or I'm not doing, you know, I'll never do this again. I'm saying, hey, I want to I want my turn real quick. What did that look like for you? Literally just not having to do something for somebody else. I was, you know, I wanted to say what's the vision? What's the you know, the thing that you've always wanted to do for you that you haven't had to haven't had a chance to do? It's not and it's not it's not always thing. It's not always wanted to do is like, hey, I got an idea. I got an idea for a pilot. I need two days to shoot this thing. OK. Never had two days. Have you shot it? Yes. You know, it was awful. But at least I got to find out. You know what I mean? How long would I have had to wait? How long would I have had to wait to find that out? I'm sitting here stressing. Now, now I know I ain't got to shoot the rest of the show. Now, that's true. That's true. I checked off my list. That's one less thing I got to worry about for the next two years. Oh, shit. So it's safe to say now, now you're back to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've explored. I've explored all my awful ideas. So you've climbed Mount Everest. Right. I've confirmed. I've confirmed where the things were a good idea or not. I can I can safely say that, hey, I want to schedule out this much time for the good ideas that did work out. All the rest of the stuff. Team. Don't even worry about it. We're not doing. Don't don't don't do budgets. Don't do none of that stuff. Everybody's head is clear. Everybody got a solid schedule and where there is space. I would say, hey, tip call for this day to call for this thing. Hey, I'm free before I leave tomorrow. Cool. Come through. Like, those are the little pockets of things to where it's like, you know, I don't have anything that I want to do that day. For sure. I'll go do that. But the thing that I am holding steadfast to. Is not letting something go on top of some already have for me. Right. Because it's not canceling you for the right before it was like, well, shit, I was going to do this thing. But I'll help you out. I guess I don't want you to think I'm not not a good person. It does. It does become cumbersome. Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. It does. It's. It's a meticulous task, especially at the height of success. For sure. Because at the height of success, everybody. Everybody want a piece of you. Absolutely. Everybody. Hey, man, come over here and do this. Come over here and do that. Yeah. And, you know. The worst part is that we asked for it. Yeah. So we wanted to do everything. Remember my easier. Remember how much. So fun. Remember how much easier things was when you when you when you did Splack of LA. And you was like, I'm on a song, everybody. I need to do this a bunch more. Yeah. And then and then everybody else is like, hey, do that for me, too. And then do that for me. Do that for me. Hey, you did that for God. Let me. Hey, let me get it. OK. And then it's like, all right, guys. Yeah. I got a fucking album, too. Now. You did. I should push back. Right. Exactly. So, yeah. So it it helps, man. It helps to carve out that time and make sure you still can be a part of the community. You can still, you know, give out services and talents and things like that. But it's just got to be on your time. You got to take time for yourself and you got to make the time. Right on. Take time and make time. Well, man. Thank you for making time for me. I'll do what I can. I'll do what I can. Not only did you come here for expeditiously, you also you also provided your your extreme talents. Thank you. And expertise for Kia the King. And I appreciate that. Is this actually going to be last album? Are you going to do so? You're going to do everybody. So, look, this is intended to be my last album, and I'm going to stick to that intention for the. It's partly for the same reasons that you. I mean, singles, though, I mean, the thing I probably still do music like if I'm if it's a soundtrack, you know, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. If I have a dope collab album that I do, I mean, yeah, I probably still do that. But but what I found when I completed this album, there was still a bunch of songs left over. Oh, so I'm probably doing volume two. Do a little. Oh, okay. All right. that's good that's good news and then once i actually complete you know the the release of that body of work and i'll be done fire uh but i i look at it as a celebratory moment because it feels like you know after praying for an opportunity to be in this industry yeah after being a little kid as a fan looking at looking at tv watching videos yeah wanting to be in this thing exactly coming from that to where we are now right it just feel like an ultimate blessing everything i prayed for i received yeah yeah yeah yeah it ain't really it's probably a little kid somewhere else praying and i don't want to be in his way right yeah i mean get the hell on you know i mean so and then i got other things you know of course of course comedy out you know building uh developments yeah stuff like that so i i just want to dedicate more time to that stuff fire um now you said on club shea shea that everybody is your brother while they can use you was there a specific incident that made you feel this way uh i think it was just i think it was a specific year 2024 24 yeah 2024 it just it just people like there was a resurgence of of me just my name was getting my name was getting back into the into the into the fray and just people that just hadn't called me at all you know just like hey man you want to do that thing again like no and you know this led to the this led to the mental state that i was in when i canceled all the stuff and i'm just like like why bro like i get it i understand like just it wasn't the fact that they was calling it was the fact that they was trying to veil it in i've been trying to do this this whole time you know what i mean it was trying to veil it in the in the just with the audacity of just like hey man now that you're popular again can you help me be popular too like just say that i would rather that sentence than the whole like hey man do you want to catch up let's link up man ain't seeing you in a while yeah you have yes you have yes you have it's just you know it was a lot of brother talk it was a lot of so it's at the cap for you it was just a cap it was just a cap if it was just straight up honestly like hey man i see what you're doing that shit look dope i really want to do the same things that any way that we can help each other climb this ladder together right fantastic that's the best thing prevailed in the fellowship hey man you know we brothers man hey man if you can call hey man i got this thing i got this perfect song for you bros everybody got the perfect song everybody first of all everybody that got the perfect song for me just because it's about strip clubs that that's come on doesn't make it the perfect i'll make it the perfect song guys god damn or just because you use the auto tune on it yeah it's not the perfect song for me but everybody has the perfect song for me when my name is in is in the is in socials and things like that but yeah man you you you did something that i i didn't i didn't see coming you uh you went on the mask singer oh yeah yeah what made you decide to do that i didn't i didn't i was drunk um oh man teach you uh tell me to stop drinking on conference calls wait till after the conference call use it as a reward system if you get through this conference call then you can have a drink but now um like three days before and i was trying to get out of it yeah like they because i saw it on paper and i was like oh this is gonna be awful this is gonna be stupid as hell i don't do this you know what was the what was the worst part about it um i thought that if they can find out who you are you get kicked off the show and i'm like they're gonna find out my shit immediately you didn't use auto tune i know but my regular speaking but i can't go to restaurants without a nigga i heard your voice and that you're just always every time like i hate that but you know i try not to talk like in public i don't i don't know what my voice sounds like i'm sure silo don't know what his sound like either but i can pick his ass out in a restaurant so so people are consuming you with you know the auto tune part of it i've literally i've had people tell me i did not recognize you without hearing you in auto tune it's weird as hell man i think entertainment it consumes the minds of people yeah i because i you know i was recognizable of course i was recognizable just as ti you know i'm saying yeah when the music was was popping and whatnot but when that shit went to tv oh yeah yeah fucking uh family hustle then it was like people actually felt yeah like they could really approach and have personal discussions with me because they've spent so much time yeah in your personal life you let them in the bubble i didn't see that coming yeah yeah my my demographic got a lot wider after after the mad singer so it was it was a good experience i i i dealt with it and i i ain't never stayed in la for that long choose your custom yes okay but the thing was i got to choose it without seeing anybody else's now if you see nobody else chose my costume all these all these costumes was available i think i was the last one to choose because nobody else chose my costume because everybody else's shit was just a mask and clothes yeah my shit was a whole tube just like i had to get in what was it it was it was like a it was literally like a styrofoam tube and some and some fuzzy pants but it was it was the monster so it was okay but everybody else was like the horse and it was just like a horse mask and just regular clothes yeah my shit was 80 000 degrees a damn tube i couldn't put fans in the shit because you can hear it in the microphone we had a microphone taped to my uh taped to my face and the fans was blown in the microphone so we couldn't put a microphone in there i had to do multiple takes so because the eye on the monster was fogging up every time i started it was so bad it was just bad well damn we tried we tried but yeah i did pick the costume it was um it was an awful choice uh and and plus and plus since i was kind of stuck in the contract i was like i'm gonna be off this shit in one episode anyways like when you choose your costume you gotta stick with it you gotta stick with it damn yeah it's over they already made it everybody else chose theirs you gotta stay how long did you make it all the way eight weeks that was awful eight weeks eight weeks of not being able to tell people i'm on the show not being able to bring anybody to the show like uh even when my wife came to the show with me she got tattoos and shit she had to put on gloves because can't nobody on the set know who you are either so you can't talk to nobody they got these um these little veils and shit you got to put on walking around we had uh we had hoodies every contestant had a hoodie that said don't talk to me and just like just eight weeks of just pure just loneliness just nothing so when you say eight weeks did you win? yeah won the first season won the first one the first season and what was that like to be the winner of the match that was weird that was so weird because you know some of the people that was on there was real singers like you know what i'm saying like it was you know it was some some real goddesses of r&b on there and i don't i think i think it was just i was just more entertaining i think that's really what it was i don't think i was a better singer than a lot of people i think i was a better singer than a lot of people thought i was gonna be right great ratings fantastic maybe the best how you choose the songs um they had a giant list of songs i just picked the ones that i knew right then yeah so it wasn't i i didn't think i was gonna be on there i just okay whatever i'll just all classic rock songs i'm like cool hey man that that that's what that one thing about celebrity you'll find through trial and error yeah what works for you you gotta make it work make it work make it enough speaking of trial and error what's what's one skill that you've you know found out that you're surprisingly good at that most people wouldn't know about oh boy in your off time i'm sure you in my off time in my off time oh we i man off time don't say drinking i don't know i'm good i'm good i'm good at that i'm good with that but now uh something that i've found out that i can do do you fix things are you a handyman around the house i've been i've been working on a car since i was like 16 so okay i've been doing that for a while man you and you're a collector yeah i just had a lot of cars yeah i stopped doing that though that that i got out of that i got i got one of every kind of car that i wanted right so now now i'm i'm good my garages ain't over overfilled like i'm i'm chilling on on the amount of cars you work on them yourself yeah yeah yeah yeah old school yeah yep and you're from tallahassee so you do the donks right yes donks are very important yes so we do we do bodies and chevelle yeah y'all do y'all do like 442s and stuff like that yeah i mean you know me i'm a s i'm a chevelle guy man okay that's that's kind of yeah you know it's about about the same body yeah yeah i feel that i feel that yeah man so uh do you ever you know do you find like that is is relaxing just to go and work on your car absolutely turning off my phone going to garage uh you know just just sitting there close the garage doors tell everybody i'm just gonna be unavailable for a little bit and then i'm gonna be like oh my god i'm gonna be like oh my god i'm gonna be like oh my god i'm gonna be like oh my god i'm gonna be like oh my god i'm gonna be like a little bit and just tinker away and the best thing that i've gotten into is uh 3d printing so i've been printing parts for the cars okay yeah so i've been what kind of part what kind of Well, I've been making intakes, body kits. Like, I've been, you know, making my own wide-body designs. And I've been designing myself and, you know, getting a blender and, you know, any 3D software and just design a whole car and just print the whole outside of the car, stick it on there. Now, does the material matter? Like, does it because it gets hot? Yeah, there's different temperature levels. Yeah, so it's, you know, the susceptibility to the sun can get a little strenuous on the actual material because it's ultimately just plastic, just melted plastic that forms in the form that you make. But there are different levels of resistance, of heat resistance. So, yeah, it gets up there. It gets all the way up to metal. You can print metal. You can print metal? You can print metal, yeah. It gets way crazy. Now, how does that work? Same way. It comes in a spool. Like, let's say if it comes in kind of like a soldering. So, it just comes in a spool. It goes through the printhead. It melts it, and it just melts it in the pattern. It forms it in that shape. Yeah, it just melts it into the pattern that you want. Yeah. Another thing that you've become known for online is your sense of humor. I don't know about that. Man, how did that develop, like, you know, in public? Because I know people who know you privately know you have. It's the same. That's, you know, a thing that a lot of people say when I go back to Tallahassee. They always say, man, you ain't changed at all. Because you are not different off-camera, on-camera. It's the same. You know, I've always been that. Because, you know, I didn't really have any friends, and I used to get bullied and shit. What do you mean you hadn't? Why? In school. In school. I know, but why? I was a smelly kid. Smelly? Yeah, I was a smelly kid. What the hell? I was wearing clothes for four or five days in a row in school. Why? I was poor. Failed businesses. It was from my dad and shit. Damn. You know, my dad had a restaurant, and then when the restaurant fell, I was like, I'm going to go to Tallahassee. I'm going to go to Tallahassee. The restaurant failed. We started doing the restaurant at the house, so every day I'd go to school smelling like garlic crabs. So that wasn't cool. So it was just a lot. But yeah, I was a smelly kid. You've seen any of these bullies since you became T-Pain? 100%. 100%. How was that exchange? I don't know. This is Expedition Smith. I am Tilt-T-I-Hair.