T-Pain Explains Why Mistakes Make the Greatest Hits (And Why Most Artists Miss Them)

And say what's happening, man, this tip hair is hosting Expeditionally. Then you know you can watch on Spotify and Spotify Premium, get with it. Users getting no commercials on my show. So, pull up. Check on set. This is Expeditionally, I am too. T.I.H.A. Uh-huh. Now, the follow-up and 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 ask through true love and respect for others that we would change the world and speak truth to power. Won't show at a time. Now, without further ado, this is Expeditionally. I'm T.I.H.A. Yeah. Another thing that, um, that you've become known for online is your sense of humor. Um, man. [laughs] Man, how did that develop, like, you know, in public? Because I know people who know you privately know you, you know, you have-- It's the same. It's the same. That's, you know, a thing that a lot of people say when I go back to T.I.H.A. they always say, "Man, you ain't changing all of it." Because you are not, you are not different off-camera, on-camera, it's the same. You know, I've always been there because I, you know, I didn't really have any friends and I used to get bullied and shit, so-- What do you mean, you had a wife? In school, in school. I was a smelly kid. You smelly. Yeah, I was a smelly kid. What the hell? I was wearing clothes for four or five days in a row and it's like, "Why?" I was poor. [laughs] They all failed businesses and from my dad and shit. [laughs] You know, my dad had a restaurant and then when the restaurant failed, uh, we started doing the restaurant out the house, so every day I'd go to school and it's like, "God, it craps." So that wasn't cool. [laughs] So it was just a lot. Uh, but yeah, I was just a smelly kid. Did you smelly kid? He's bullied since you became T-Pan? 100%. 100%. How was that exchange? I treated him well. I treated him well. You know, I was one of my worst bullies, like I picked him up, took him to the club, let him ride in the rolls, top-downs, like just, you know, just gave him a better view of, you know, how things could have been if you had one piece of shit. That's a very-- [laughs] That's an outstanding good probe. That's how, man. And this is the first time I've heard this. I ain't gonna fight him. You know what I mean? I ain't gonna treat him like shit, like, I know what it feels like to be treated like shit. I don't wish that on nobody. So I ain't gonna put that back on you, you know, I ain't gonna let bad people turn me to a bad person. Yeah. So you're not to the maturity. Yeah. And it helps. It helps a little bit. So, yeah, man, I'll just, you know, I'll let it ride, man, you know, kids don't know what they're doing. Kids are fun. They're just awful. Yeah. [laughs] It's just, they don't know no better. Yeah. It's just, you know, TV, rap, all that shit is cool, just, you know, emulate some of that shit or whatever. Yeah. I don't know what you're doing. TV grew up and like, man, I sucked. [laughs] You know, you were the first, you were one of the first people that we saw from our generation doing the live streaming. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How you stumbling it at? Uh, man, it was just a interest at first, like when it was like you stream and stuff like that and was doing it, um, I got in trouble on there too much. [laughs] What's your stream? Your stream was like one of the first live stream platforms. It was like really where you can just show people what you're doing in the studio. This was like, oh, seven, I think, you know what I mean? So, uh, it had to be, oh, seven or oh, nine or something like that, but it was just on there all the time. I'm calling celebrities, you know, not telling them I'm screaming and think it's getting mad. [laughs] It's just a bit sad to say it. It's just a bit sad to say it. It was always in my hotel room gaming by myself and you know, that gets a little weird because you, you feel like you want to say something to somebody, start losing a lot. You get frustrated, but if you had somebody there, which it would be a lot less frustrating. So I was doing an interview with PlayStation, you know, at the Sony building and we were playing games while they were interviewing me, but we were on Twitch. And obviously after the interview, I was like, hey, what was that? Because everybody seemed to be gamers on this, on this platform, told me what it was and that night, because it was in San Francisco, I was like, hey, do you know anybody from the company that can come help me set up a thing? And they came that night in my hotel room and just set up the whole thing and I screamed that night. That's 2014. Since then, I've just been, I've been going. That's what's up, man. Yeah. That's what's up. Now, what game do you like to play the most? Well, I'm a variety gamer, so I try not to, you know, I keep it open so I can move around. If I am to select what game you play, there's a part of it. There's a part of it. Even when I come back to streaming from my break, I have a wheel where we can pick, you know, the stream can pick what what games I play for the night. Okay. That's dope. What do live streaming teach you? How is it different from this thing of ours? It's so different because it's a live improvisational direct connection with your fans. It's so much different than like an Instagram live or something like that, like streaming. Like IRL streaming, a lot of people feel like you have to do the wildest shit in order to get noticed. And it's really just consistency, you know, having to entertain people when there's nothing else going on in the room with you. That's a harder thing to do than having people show up for a concert and you being on stage and you know, that's what's happening in the whole room. Now, everybody's in their own room. So they don't get the excitement of the people next to them. They don't get the excitement of, well, this is what the whole room is doing, so I guess I'm cheering too. It's like everybody's just on their computer like, I'm just going to wait till you fuck up. So you know, everybody's waiting for a clip, but it's that improvisational effort that you put forward into live streaming that becomes the commodity. It's not the how wild you get or how many viral clips do you get, it's the can you pivot when things go wrong? Can you pivot when something is going wrong and then it starts going good? Can you make sure that you stay on, you know, stay on topic and do all that shit without being an asshole to people? Well, you know, brand start messing with you a little bit more. You get a lot more opportunity instead of just, you know, virality. Yeah. You mentioned being in a meeting with PlayStation, if you could design your video game, what you think it'll be? Oh, I have one in the bricks right now that I'm trying to develop. It's called Pink Slip. So it's called Pink Slip. You remember Midnight Club W, okay, just making sure. So it's like that, but every race, you race against a celebrity. So you race against a celebrity and the Pink Slips are on the line and you get one of their known cars. Okay. So like, like my dunk, like a lot of people have seen my dunk, you got to race me and my dunk if you win, you get the dunk. You know what I'm saying? So it's like one of those things where you kind of trade up, you start with an awful car and you, you know what I'm saying? You start trading up and getting Pink Slips and you move up in the game until like the ultimate, like the cone of sand or something. How long does it take, you know what I'm saying, to develop? Now, now, two, three days, yeah, with the integration of clawed, the integration of AI, the integration of all these different LLMs, like you can do so many different things so much quicker. Like, I've even, you know, during my break from streaming, I've upgraded my stream, you know, through coding with clawed and things like that and just, you know, a lot of people, you know, obviously when they hear AI, it's just like, ah, you just went, blah, blah, blah. But it's like, you know, the way I use AI is just such a different way. It's like, if I get to a part of a problem I'm trying to solve and there's like a super complicated equation or something like that, that's what I use AI for. AI to me is like a glorified Google or a calculator. Like, it's, you know, it's, how many days has it been since this day? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's that kind of stuff that I use AI for and if I get to a part of coding that I can't process myself, I'm like, hey, can you make this part of their coding and I can keep going after that? So, you know, this is stuff like that that I use AI for. It's a problem solved more than it is a replacement for things that I want to do. So, I think that's a more, not only ethical way of using it, but, ah, accepted. And now that you mentioned it, the question I asked you earlier, I think AI is the answer to it. When I said, what's the thing today that kind of reminds you of how the tool was to do? Yeah. Oh yeah. I guess AI would be the thing. Yeah. It's been, it's been a thing for a long time. And I think people are just now being able to put a name to it. Right. You know, I think that's the, that's really the correlation between the uptick and mentions and things because nobody had a name for it. Back then it was super computer or, you know, the database or, you know what I'm saying, hacking the mainframe. All that was AI. Right. Like, all that shit from the 80s hacker movies, all that shit was proposed AI. We just didn't have the capabilities and the, ah, the richness, the richness, the wealth that people have to make data centers and shit like that. Like it's been a thing. Like Google has been AI for a long time. Right. And like having something that you can type in a question and it scours the entire internet deserves for the answers. Right. is. That's what chat GBT is. It's gathering all the things that's learned from all the shit that we've put in it to bring you back an answer. It's not coming up with new answers. It's not it's not training, you know, on absolutely thin air. It's it's training on the things that it can find. It's it says let me let me think for a second. It says let me think for a second. And then it goes and just scours Google. It goes just scours being and it scours all these other search engines and it's there. Well, here's all the shit I found and here's the thing that fits specifically with what you typed in. It's literally just a better Google. The only thing about AI that I feel is is is I guess tumultuous is that it allows everyone to find the best and the worst of our society. You know, I'm saying because like how you said you use it, you know, you're using it in a way as a tool. Yeah. Yeah. Some people research some just some very terrible things. 100% and and get access to life experiences. How to make a bomb. Yeah, you know, yeah, absolutely. Or even worse, you know, I mean, and those things I feel like anytime you it's like the internet. Yeah, it's like the internet. It is exactly like it. It's like rule 34. I know rule 34 is. No, what's that rule 34 is if it exists, there's porn to it. If it exists, there is some porn of it for sure. 100% that's rule 34. Always know that. Damn. But the internet seems like if you're just sitting and you're talking to somebody and like before it came out like nans, you know, you can get your computer and go anywhere in the world and see all these things and it seems like man, yeah, that'd be phenomenal. Yeah. But then when you find out that the internet gives you access to all the things that you can't find. Yeah. But also it gives everyone else access to you. Yeah. I mean, that's the premise of every movie, right? Like we create this great thing, but then the wrong person gets it. That could be no good without bad. Like it's a great thing. It's going to come with bad intentions also. You know, you got to you got to take the good with the bad. You got to know how to, you know, the thing that we can get ahead of I think is to create those fail saves and making sure that, you know, at least make it a little more difficult to do the bad shit. Like put those things in there. But in turn, you start to block some of the good things that can be done with it. So it's kind of it's a tough, it's a tough scale to balance. Man, with you being such a long-jevetess artist that has had nails and nights work. Long-jevetess. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, man. I appreciate that. But now, man, would you would you have a such, you know, a phenomenal career, man, spans, decades. I'm sure your experiences, you're very rich in experience. I'm sure you've had very good and very kind of, you know, not so good experiences. Yeah. Of course. I want to know one of the experiences that you thought was going to be good and you was like, nah, that at one what I thought. Oh, man, uh, drinking before a show. Man, everything go back to drinking. That it was my life for a little while. It was real alcoholism, man. It was real. It was actual alcoholism, but not I think one of the things I thought was going to be good and it wasn't. Um, I never, I never, I never, I'm never so optimistic that I'm that I'm always just I'm always a pretty positive guy. I'm very positive, but I'm always in the back of my mind. I'm like some, something's going to happen. Artists that you always wanted to collaborate with and you finally got a chance to do it. And it wasn't what you thought. Uh, oh, man. Juno. Damn. Not he didn't, he didn't do a bad job. I gave him a bad song. That happened with him and 3k. That was damn. Yeah. I really thought I was, but it was, again, 3k feature, follow the 3k feature day, but again, it was drugs and alcohol. I thought them songs was very nice for it. We're not. It was very, it was real going out drunk, but just, you know, going back and hearing out loud. I can't even believe I sent that shit. As a musical technician, tell me what you think makes a good song a good song. The, the, it's a feeling that I get and it's, it's kind of a, a somber feeling. It's weird to explain it like this, but it's, uh, if I get like emotional, listen to a song, then that's only triggering the memory of the first time I had a hit. And it was the same feeling that I had. So I don't know when, uh, I don't know, when a hit is a hit. I just know. It's a feeling. I got that, I got that thing is happening again. That thing is happening again. If I can listen to it back to back to back to back to back to back and people get tired of it, I got to start using the headphones. And then it's, it's, it's, it's one of them ones. I feel like, hmm. I mean, like how, how do you determine which genre to explore? Because you, I never, I never do. I never do. I just let it happen. Yeah. Yeah. So much. Yeah. Whatever it turns into man, I just let it, I just let it happen. I can't, I don't want to get in my own way. Yeah. Like I don't, I don't want to, uh, block, I don't want to block a blessing from trying to impress somebody else because, you know, I feel like people want me to make a certain kind of music. I'm not going to block something that I, even if I don't know what I'm doing, if it, if it just, uh, just happening, it's coming out my hands to the keyboard and just, you know, uh, it just happened to just be getting put on the record. I'm not going to block it because it don't fit what I was going for. Right. So I just kind of let, I just let it, just let it flow, man. So, so you play and produce as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All that. So what songs did you produce that we might know? Oh, all first three of my albums. For real? Yeah. Well, I, on my first album, I produced everything except for two songs. Second album, Epiphany. So you did, I'm sure. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I did, I'm sure. I did by your drink. I did stripper. I did, uh, what else? Everything. I mean, it was all of it. Chop and screwed. Uh, you know, fucking everything. It was all of it. Yeah. Freeze, everything. Pretty much all my, like, biggest songs I produced. Was, was that time that an artist reached out to you to collaborate and you didn't do it, but you felt like you felt later that you should have. Oh, not really. I kind of, I kind of just go. I just do it. Oh, I'm, I was wondering when people that always are showing up. You know, Wayne got so many songs to go. Yeah. That was a lot of that. I got a lot of songs. And you know, we sound like y'all were having a good day. It was, it was, we was having a good time, man. Uh, yeah. I mean, obviously, you know, we were always together and we were seeing at the same person. You know, I'm saying Wayne was a lot more popular than me. He was going way longer than me. Right. You know, it'd been in the game a lot longer than me. So, you know, when I came through and then we kind of coincided, uh, style wise and, and, and genre wise, like we got kind of put into the same, into the same group. And then, yeah, I mean, we just embraced that. You know, I mean, we, you know, just, it was good to see y'all, you know, I'm saying. Yeah. Working closely. It felt like, you know, something that was supposed to be held. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I wanted, I wanted to make sure that I set my stone, you know what I'm saying? And I wasn't going to reject that and be like, well, you know, we, like, we supposed to be competition like everybody said, you know, it's a friendly competition to rap games or friendly. I don't get fuck about none of that. It's cool. Let's have fun. Yeah. It's just supposed to be fun. We supposed to be expressing oneself. Let's get out there and let's go have fun. Now, you were introduced to us, uh, by way of a car, kind of big music. Yeah. Uh, and then it switched to Nappy boy. Uh, was there, was there a moment in your partnership with ACON that you just knew you had to go and do your own thing? Well, I wanted to do my own thing from the jump. Cause I was signed to ACON as a writer. So I was supposed to be only writing songs for ACON. Now, the only reason that, uh, my first single on Sprone came out was because I wrote it for ACON. And then he said, we don't make songs for girls. I'm like, cool with that me. Uh, I guess that record was too soft for him. I think I think this is around. This might have been like, soul survivor days. I think. So it was, you know, it comes with a gangster back then. So, but nah, he, uh, he basically, he's, I mean, not basically, he literally said, we don't make songs for girls. So I was like, cool. That's our convict thing. We'll keep it, we'll keep it gangster. I took the song. I took it to the club and gave it to DJ DJ. DJ didn't play it. Yeah. I mean, that's whatever. Yeah, it's not. It's a Philly DJ though. Um, but took it to the film. Yeah. Yeah. He's, he's, he's online, claiming that that never happened. But that was such a big moment in my life, because it actually led to me getting the song on the radio. So I took it to the club, gave it to him. He put it down. He was playing all the hot shit. He kept saying, hold on, hold on. I'm sitting in and these I move like, "Hey man, you gonna play this any like, "Hell, ho, ho, ho, ho, then feel my walk then." - That nigga playing every film, I'm sorry. I'm like, okay, that's fucking crazy. (laughing) So, I'm like, all right, that's cool. Let me get the CD back, I'm gonna go to another club 'cause I was planning on just going around the club and playing the shit, and I went to another club, gave it to Felicia Fox, and she got it on the radio like the next day, and then it started going up and up and up, and people passing it around and she like that. - A real organic process. - Yeah, off of just pure neglect in the first place. (laughing) - What about the time you had an opportunity to collaborate with one of the biggest artists of our generation, Kanye. - Oh yeah, yeah, that was a process. - Did y'all have a personal relationship at first? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it wasn't like I knew him forever, but once I got up in the music game, and he was already doing his thing, and obviously, I'm a huge fan of Kanye. I've always listened to his albums and checking out his stuff, and he actually used auto-tune before me, which was a weird thing. So he actually used auto-tune before me. Obviously, but it was on a, I think it was on a skit on his album, so it wasn't like a serious song or anything like that, and it didn't stick, obviously. I don't know what it was about when I used an air, but I wanted to copy it, it was already available for everybody since 1997. It was out there, ready to go. Same version that I used and everything was great. But yeah, so working with Kanye, we did a couple of songs back and forth for my group, Sophia Fresh. Like, me and him was always going back and forth in the same studios, we always next to each other in rooms and stuff, so he'd send stuff over, I'd send stuff over, and then he was working with 808's and heart breaks in Hawaii, and he brought me out to do all the 808's. - Okay. - So that was a strange job. (laughing) - Just the 808's. - Just the 808's, he tried to get me to write some songs, but they were whack, they were not good. So they just wasn't up to Kanye level. It was just regular T-Pain songs, but they were really wasn't Kanye songs at all. But yeah, so I pretty much did a lot of 808's on 808's and heart break. - That was a dope album, that was my favorite album when it came up. - Yeah, he knows crazy about that album. He said to me, 808's and heart breaks is basically rap returns, saying my first album. 'Cause when he listened, the reason he brought me to do 808's on it, because he said, I was able to make love songs with a bunch of bass. Love songs, and a bunch of bass. Heart breaks, and 808's. (laughing) So it was, so he was like, you just didn't know how to market that. - I'm like, okay, that's fair. (laughing) I get it, I'm not super great at marketing. You can do your thing. I just want to people to listen to my songs. - No, what was the difference in 808's and heart breaks from when y'all did good life? - He may have been more sad during 808's and heart breaks. - Damn. - Good life was fucking fantastic. I think he had a lot more money or something. I don't know what's going on, man. But everything he did was just, all the songs were just a great mood, just everything, but 808's and heart breaks. I guess it was, you know, heart breaks, you know. You know, the sessions were a little easier. - Yeah, some on the TV, some on the TV, in the studio. - Not with me, I never say that. - Yeah, I used to do that. That was my thing. I don't know. (laughing) - When I worked with him at the end of the day, it was out there, and it was out there, and Hawaii. - Yeah, Hawaii, yeah. When I worked with him, he had all the Jane Bond double or seven movies playing. - Oh, I thought you were talking about that stuff. That stuff I used to do. I used to always have porn playing. - No. - No, man. - It was fun. - No, man. - I needed motivation. You get to see all different kinds of colors and stuff. - He was working with him. - It was porn and cartoons. - No, I take the cartoon. I take the cartoon. - You got to have some motivation. You got to have things. - You own docs on or something. - Yeah, we ain't now, man. - Pain, I'm nothing to sit in here with you. - Now, no. - porn is awesome in the studio. - You get a lot of different kinds of motivation. - Absolutely not, bro. I am not singing. - Things all washing around and stuff. - Man, the purpose of porn is to be a rouse. Why do I want to sit in here with those? - Not necessarily. - Not necessarily. You could just be admiring the human anatomy. - What? - I mean, the beauty of, you know, of two spears becoming one. - Amen. - Two spears becoming one. - Ain't no spears on the porn and they know that they don't. - A little bit. - The spears are separated. - I don't know. - Yeah, you know what I'm saying? If you have a person with a connection with somebody, you care about your love, y'all. - I don't speak. A lot of those people are friends. (laughs) - You know what I mean? (laughs) - I see, now back in the days, now back in the days. Now back in the day, you ain't about to tell me, bro. You know how, you know how, like, if we had like a period of movies that was like, it was always like Jonah Hill, Seth Rogan, and all of them was like together. - Exactly, it was all like the super bad camp, right? - Yeah. - We had that in West Coast Productions. (laughs) It was always the same nigga. The nigga's was friends, they always had it. (laughs) - Amen. - You can't, you cannot tell me that you grew up around that time and did not want one of y'all's plans in the background of a West Coast production, boy. - I, I, bro, I'm not even as familiar with that West Coast Productions eels, bro. - Uncultured. (laughs) - Man, hold up, all right. So now, now I'mma say, with Session, will you end with another artist playing porn? - It's never with another artist. - Oh, okay. - It is, yeah, it is me, and the engineer. - It's right. - Uh-oh. - I mean. (laughs) - The porn, porn, I'm really getting me around. I was like, I was not watching. I was not watching porn at very young age. - Yeah, me too. - So it's not, so I've gotten desensitized to it. It's just like something to watch. It's just like having on background TV. It's just like, it's not even a thing now. - I hate you, man. - You know? - You would try E-S-P-E-N. (laughs) - It's pretty damn good. - If anything, that's works. Just watching a bunch of other niggas doing it. (laughs) - Women's volleyball, though, that's pretty nice. That's awesome. That's awesome. - That's awesome. - That's pretty good. (laughs) - Shit, you funnier here. (laughs) - And out of your career, all the songs you've written and produced, what do you think is the biggest successful song? - Oh, man, "BioJank" by Lance Ladd. - For real? - Gotta be. - Written and produced? Yeah, "BioJank" 100%. Yeah. - Okay. What about one that you've done for another artist? - Kiss, kiss. Yeah, that was Chris Brown's first number one internationally. - Do. - So that was, yeah, that was, that was big for me. That's pretty cool. - That's all that, man. - Yeah. - And you have seven grandmys. - Yes, yes, yes. Just got the last one, last year, yeah. - Okay, what'd you win for it? - Durant Bernard. Durant Bernard, I produced and wrote a song on his album. - That's awesome. - Yeah, he won album of the year, so we got, you know? - That's all it. - Got the residual, Grammy. - Which one meant the most to you? - Whoo. Man, probably the Durant one. - For real? - Yeah, because I actually wrote and produced like a big chunk of that song. Obviously I wrote the hook, my verse, some of the bridge and I produced the whole song. I think that's the first song that I won a Grammy for that I actually like did most of the work. - Okay. - Yeah, that's all right. That's all right. - That's pretty cool. - But we have an opportunity to make our way back into the grandmys again. - Dewey? - Yeah, man. Yeah, man. - The money? - Is it the money? (laughing) - No, I was pretty, I was pretty impressed. But not yet, I did not really think that you was an incredible artist and an incredible writer. But I remember when we worked together in Australia, it was in the season. - Yeah, yeah. - That was our story. - All right, so when we worked together, we've done a collection of songs. And we actually turned the damn ballrooms and motels. - That was amazing. - Into a studio. (laughing) - That's amazing. - Man, we have at least an EP word for song. - Absolutely. - Yeah, 'cause everybody came together. You got a microphone, you got speakers, you got a interface, you got a computer, everybody came together made the whole thing in studio. - Hey man. - Hey man. - Me, Tray Sons, FAB, DJ Montenegro. - Montenegro on the beats, that was incredible. - And T-Pay, we did, at least by five, six songs. - Yeah, we kept going. - Yeah. - And people was not having any of that. - Yeah, they were fast, they were asleep. (laughing) - In his defense, it was 5 a.m. - It was 5 a.m. (laughing) - But the fun, it did the funnest shit in the world. All right, so me and my old lady, we were playin' Spain, we woke FAB and Tray Sons. And then, we just started working on a record. And we were drinking the whole time, obviously. - Yeah. - And we started working on this record. And FAB, he was here then, those don't. And I'm talking about, I knew he was asleep, 'cause, you know, he was, he was slow. I knew he was asleep. - Caskin' sleep. - Yeah, me, but bro. (laughing) - I promised the God. - When I finished my verse, and man, it got right up, but it did it verse. - Had a whole verse. - He was right in the verse in the sleep. - Bro, we died, bro. (laughing) - And the hell, it didn't mean, dead sleep. - He dead. - And popped up and go into the liver of verse. And it was fire. - He ain't in with no more. (laughing) - That's it. - Nah, that was amazing, bruh. I mean, he popped up and really had a whole verse ready to go. There's no way he had to, I saw him like, fuck around with his phone, but he fell asleep like, right at the beginning of that. - He fell asleep with the phone in the hand. - Yeah. - Like, right, no way you wrote that whole verse, just right then. - That shit man, that was probably, that was one of the most impressive performances I've seen. - Yeah, he ain't get up, he ain't drinking the water. (laughing) - He just got up and started rapping. (laughing) - My turn, just fucking fixes that and God's work. (laughing) - Fuck you doing, bruh? (laughing) - Yeah, you need a minute, nigga. - Oh Jesus, we're sure, so we worked together before. - Yeah. - But when I heard the record that you did for me on my project, it sounded like you did that motherfucker for me. - This was around the time, yes. (laughing) - Man, that shit, it just felt like it was an undeniable entry on the album, and you didn't send it to me. I got it from DJ Incognito. - Really? - Yes. - Yeah, shout out to Incognito. - I was at one of seven nine doing Incognito, sure. I think we were somewhere about announcing birthday bands or something like that, and he was asking me, was I dumb, was I still working on the project, and I was like, yeah, he's like, man, I got one from you for T-Pain. I say, I ate, let me eat it, and he sent it to me, and you know, you and my Tate, and I was like, oh, this is actually dope, this is actually hard. - That's insane. - Yeah, that's insane. You know, I recorded that hook, and I wanted to, like-- - That was okay. - I did that hook and up down, same day. - For real? - Yep. (laughing) - That's why-- - Damn, that was, why many, how many years ago was it? - I was 13 to 2013. - God, damn, and it's just now making it. - Yeah. - But it wouldn't fit none of my albums, though. (laughing) - But why would you send it, you know-- - It's just been sending it around, man. It was just one of the things that I was making because, you know, 'cause it was originally a muster beat. - Okay. - You know what I mean? So, I just had like a whole muster pack. I just made a hook to everything, so. I always do that, and then someone's just sitting, just sitting my hard job for years and years. - And anytime-- - And those too. - Yeah, my day is, sometimes my day is like, "Hey, you got a pack for me?" - Yeah, here. - I just sent 'em a ton of alcoholism. (laughing) - Sometimes it's just a timing thing. - 100%. - Yeah, yeah. We are very early sometimes. - Yeah. - And it's just like, man, we would've just been, two years later, man. (laughing) It's actually a lot different, so. Yeah, I get that, and that's why I'm okay with letting things linger and just sitting the hard guy for a while. I know it's gonna happen. I know they're good ideas. - Right. - Either somebody else is gonna do it, which I have no problem with. You making the world a better place, get those ideas out there, do you think? Or somebody's gonna find mine. It's gonna happen, you know. - But the song is a collaboration. It's a very, it's a very noteworthy collaboration. - Pretty good. - You know what I'm saying? It reminds me kind of swagger like us in a sense. - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We got Tony? - Yeah. - You keep Tony, right? Tony's dead, eh? - Of course, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - So the song is called "Dope Boy," but we call it a "Dope Boy" Academy, and it's myself, T-Pain, "Yong-Geezy" and "Too Chain." - Mm-hmm. - That shit, that came together. - I mean, that's, yeah, that's right. (laughing) - It couldn't be a better opportunity. - Like "Buttermilk and Coenbury," and it came together. - It's a combination, bro. - I love that, man. It sounds, it sounds right. - It sounds right. It sounds like, ain't nobody's kept a beat. Everybody's, it sounds like everybody's just been doing this shit. It's never stopped, so I love that, man. - It's a, it's a, it's a fucking a, a, a master class. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's a lot of lessons in that, man. (laughing) - They were just clamoring up before you. (laughing) - Say no to Joe, say no to Joe. (laughing) - Just letting you know. - Hey, man. Well, advice, would you give young producers trying to create a unique sound? - Do that weird shit. (laughing) - Do that stupid ass thing. You know, when you fucking, when you, when you was eating your fucking, you're Michael Wade Mill and you're mistakenly dropped the fork on the keyboard and they did that weird thing. Leave it on there, leave it there. Leave it there, 'cause I cannot tell you how many times things have been a mistake and turned out to be like the thing of the song. Like just do the weird shit. - That little one time is happening for you, man. - The stripper, I'm gonna love it a stripper. One of my biggest songs, I was recording it as a job I wasn't even recording it. I was just singing it in the booth at Stank Oniya. Big boy walked in while I was singing it. I didn't know he was in there, so I was just like, "Fucking around." He was like, "Hey, when you dropping that?" I was like, "Well, I was just fucking around." He was like, "No, you need to drop that." - Had you made the beat already? - Yeah, I had made the beat in Stank Oniya. That's it, like I had just made it and then I went in the booth to start recording and big boy heard me fucking around and was like, "You need to drop that." And I was like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, sir." (laughing) - Yeah, sir, yeah, sir. - That's it, that's it, it's a nice worth taking. - Right, exactly. So, you know, man, boy wondered, talked about a lot of times that he, you know, was trying to move, move like little beats around in F.L. studio and he moved in the wrong place and it turned out dope and that's like, you know what I'm saying? The thing that made the song different, you know, my son is producing, like he's getting on his shit so he leaving the mistakes and then trying different genres, trying different types of things. But young producers, man, just do the weird shit. That thing that you think, ain't nobody gonna understand, ain't nobody gonna get it. Nobody understands all this shit that's happening right now. People still don't understand what's happening right now. Just go ahead and do it, leave it in there. You know what? Just to make you feel better, make two versions. (laughing) Go on with or without the weird shit. Though, you know, just try it, man. Just try it. It ain't nothing like a good old controlsy. - Yeah. (laughing) - Just get it out of that. - Man, you being a producer yourself and having immense success in production. Have you ever been in a session with another producer and was kind of like impressed with their process? Bruno Mars. - Yeah. Bruno Mars changed how our record completely. Just the way they never have like music and then, you know, we start coming up with a song. They make the music while they're coming up with the song. - Oh. So it's, he has the whole band in the control room. His engineers hate him. (laughing) (laughing) His engineers might get to hate him. - 'Cause they're recording me too. - They're recording everything in the control room. Mike and all, all the background vocals, they recording all that shit on one mic. 'Cause it's bunch of niggas around. One mic doing all the background vocals and it's brilliant. - So, at least they ain't got porno. - Hey, man. (laughing) That doesn't go, could be worse engineers. (laughing) But no, you know, coming up with the music while you're coming up with the song. That's actually one of the Grammys I won 'cause he got to have him over the year and I did two songs on his album. So it was a, - You grow and produce. - Yeah, being a part of the band was like, you know what I'm saying? I'm in there playing chords, you know, on the keys, the drummers and the boob doing this thing, like the bass players right there, we coming up with the shit right there. And he starts singing, I start singing, I'm writing the lyrics, like I'm just, I'm just playing the writing the lyrics and then the song just happens, right there in the control room. - You know, we call that process, we call it that Habatchi-snare. - Habatchi-snare. - Whippin' in your face. - Yeah, exactly. - No, it's dope man. - Habatchi-snare. - It's a real cool thing, man. And even when the song is still gone and it's gone, and even when you get past a certain point, and then somebody starts doing something different on the first hook or the first verse, and we like, you know, we can go back and change that one part. And you know what I'm saying? Like we came up with like different chord progressions in different parts of the songs after we had moved on because we had all the elements there. - Right. - So it was, I think that was my, yeah, that was my most favorite kind of process. Man, that reminds me of like, I watched Isaac Hayes do a session, and that's kind of how he did it. - Yeah, yeah. - I think that's how most people, - James Brown. - We might be the only, don't do that. - Right, right. - Yeah. - Yeah. When you got all the elements there, and you got everything that can make a great song, and you come up with it and I did, and you can change it right then. It's that, and producers that know how to play keys. Like just, I can't imagine just waking up and being able to just hear a song in your head and just, there it is. - Right. - The whole thing. Like just right out of all that one time, especially like a live- - Love and gay. - Yeah. - Love and gay. - All that shit, well, all that shit, all that shit had to be recorded simultaneously, in order for them groups to happen, in order for them pockets to be kept in and things like that. So I feel like that's, you know, it's a thing that we had yet to unlock. Like even when I got into country music when I was living in Nashville, like that's how all these sessions went. They had session bands. I had no idea, like I thought you needed to, - How do you put a band together? - That's the thing. You literally call it one person, "Hey, I need a session band." Boom, like they took the things that I produced. They got the score to it. They got all the sheet music printed out and just a random band comes in and just plays all the shit, and they leave you paying for the day and they get there. And I was like, "I was working for higher." Yeah, it's working for higher, but it's like, there's whole bands that that's all they do. They don't perform. They not trying to be a cover band for nobody. They literally just go to studios and just play a whole song for people in there, but it's insane. - Man, my advice to the young artists and producers, man, is listen to old shit. - Yes. - Listen to old shit because it's something in that old shit that could become new shit. - 100%. There's nothing new under the sun. - Yeah. - Just bring it back. - Yeah. - Bring it back. Things, if you're looking for something different to do, it ain't got to be up to make a way back. - It ain't got to be a new difference. - Go back to the '60s. - Right, it ain't got to be a new different. It's just got to be different from right now. - Yeah. - It ain't got to be a new different, it can go either way. - Yeah, yeah. If somewhere this is to your catalog 50 year from now, what do you hope they understand about your contribution to music? - That it was true. That it was, that it was, it was barred. The soul was there. It wasn't just about alcohol and shivers. (laughing) It was a byproducts. (laughing) - It came with the, it came with the director, you know? - Just speaking of, okay. So you mentioned, you know what I'm saying? I mean, love was a struggle. Where did the story of that song come with? Like, where did that come from? - So there's like two parts of it, but you know, the major part is that me and two of my homeboys had just, just got up with a young cash. And one of my homeboys had never been to a strip club. Young cash. - Yeah, very good friends. - Yeah, good host. - His name, his name was choir boy, son. - Oh man. - That's easy. - So yeah, so you had never been to a strip club. Young cash took a strip club and he was trying to, he was trying to get that girl out. - He was out of there. - For real? - He was not, not, what are you doing in here? - What are you doing in here? - You don't know you better than him. - He's so much better than him. - He was, he was my guy on the road. So he, you know, he was like my height man on the road, so we was making good money. He was like, baby, I can, I can just make your life so much better. He was, it's really, so I was making fun of him in the boot. That's why I did this. - And she's like, I enjoyed this. - Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, no. - This is my decision. - She was really like, this is Jacksonville. You probably have the least amount of money in here. It's over the dope boys in this business. You ain't got a hair for what these niggas is talking about. So, you know, obviously we thought we had a lot of money. - Yeah. - But it was a big thing. - There's a lot of money when it's the most money that you've had. - Absolutely, absolutely. Then you go see a glass elevator. You're like, oh shit, I want it. It got nothing. So it's got glass elevators. But yeah, so I was, that's what was happening. I was making fun of him in the boot. And, you know. - So it wasn't your personal story? - No, no, no, no, no, no. - There was one. - Okay. - That was the first part of it. So I know what it felt like, but it came from-- - So when did you fall in love with a strip house? - This was, I was 15. - You were 15? - Yeah, this was, this is a strip from a strip house. - A strip house. - A strip house. - Now that strip club. - Now that strip house, we're not a lot of strip clubs. So we had to make strip houses. - Okay. - Yeah, so you had one guy, what I'm realizing now is a pent-- (laughing) - You know that one guy, if you wanted to have a party, you want to have girls to come over, you call that guy, get around him all of the strip and that's-- - And there was one of them that you just took a liking to. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We already had a personal friendship where they found out she's dripped and then it was like, "Oh, okay, all right, this is possible." - What was it about her? - Ah, not much. (laughing) She was super ugly. I don't know what it was. I think she was very cool. You know, the personality outweighed-- (laughing) - The personality outweighed. (laughing) - Personality sometimes plays a huge role in it. - You know, so yeah, so it was great. It was a personality. She was cool to tell. - She was cool to tell. - But I mean, love with an ugly stripper is the whole, that's the whole-- - It's a lot, it's just a lot of syllables. - Just a lot of syllables. (laughing) - Man, I've enjoyed this immensely. - Yeah, man, yeah, man. - Yeah, man, you know, I feel like we've been long overdue. - Absolutely. - To collaborate in a way. - 100%. - 100%. - So, you know, we should probably, you know, start talking about that tour again. - I'm down, I'm down. I mean, whenever you feel like-- - I got time. That was a great place, man. I think New Zealand's my favorite place. - It was Japan for a little while then. - It's so peaceful, man. - It's so peaceful. - Yeah. - And they always look like they happy to see you. - If we do, I feel like if we do another tour, like last one, we all just, they all the, everybody on the, on the bill, we just need to get a compound out there. - Why not? - We got every, getting 'em, 'cause we moving. - Well, I mean, no, let's just get one, it's like our central thing, like, hey, we about to do an Australian New Zealand run. I'll see y'all at the compound. We go from there instead of, you know, flying day of the first show. (laughing) So yeah, we get up there, spend about a week. - Yeah. - Do some music in the studio that we build. - Yeah. - And then hit the tour. - Why not, man? - You know? - Why not, I need a fucking vacation. - Sure, that's what it would be. (laughing) - Man, so, you know, here, we have, expeditionally, we have a segment called, Word of the Day. - Oh, nice. - Now, Word of the Day is a word that is dedicated to the artist or the conversation. Or should I say to the guest or the conversation that we've had. But first, I must piss. - Okay. - Yep, there it is. We knew it. We knew it was coming. - I'll be right back. - We knew it was coming. - We'll take love. - We're getting up there in age, you see. (laughing) - Benjamin Buttons, I don't know what you're doing. (laughing) - I give back every year. - I can do it. (laughing) - Only no time for this. (laughing) - I don't think I've ever seen one of them. - Yeah, it was a fast and furious for me. But top gear, top gear was the first time I saw it. Fast and furious made me one way. I was like, Ludicrous can't just. (laughing) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) - Which one? - Morgan, arrow eight. - The, that's super short motherfucker. Yeah. Oh, I know exactly what you're talking about. Bro, oh my God. (murmuring) (laughing) I'm telling you, yeah, yeah. They were, it's the regulations. They wouldn't let it over here. - They had loomers. - Yeah, yeah. - They were new bodies. - They were, yeah. They're not gonna let us fuck with that back. They ain't gonna let us do it. - One in metal, bro. - Yeah. - Like, I can't call wood like they want to play. - Just a fucking fire. Yeah, you know what you brought again, wait. Did you get like a, well, obviously there's mega ohms. That's what I'm saying, there's mega ohms. So yeah, that's like, if you get an old one, that's still in good shape, you can probably get it over here for her. Yeah. - What's that, what's that? - Hey, yeah, yeah. - What's that brother? - Yeah. - And it was supposed to be like funnier. - How was your call? - How was your call? - It was like, call. - He used words. - Yeah, that was me. - Gotta have words, man. - Man, it's a little crazy. - Gotta have words. - So. - I'll show you what these don't do. - How was that? How was that? - Congratulations. - Yeah, yeah. - Congratulations. - I was like, that's what I'm gonna call it. How was that? - This is fucking great. We got all the way to the word of the day, I think. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - You got that kind of thing? - Get out of that. - Shot. - Okay. All right, you ready? - Ready. - Yeah, okay. So yeah, here, expeditiously, we have some kind of the word of the day the word of the day is dedicated to the guest. - Okay. - Or a conversation. - Nice. - And the word today, for you. - Okay, okay. - It's the pain. Irrefergable. Irrefergable. - Irrefergable. - Irrefergable. - I like that. - Irrefergable means impossible to disprove or deny. Just to show that I know this word, I'm gonna use it in a sentence. (laughing) So you can go and use it like you know it in all your life. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Few artists can claim an irrefutable impact on popular music, but T-Pains groundbreaking work, commercial success and lasting influence, make that distinction undeniable. Irrefergable. - That's what I'm talking about. - Can I add one, I thought of a word a few days ago and I was like, I'm never gonna get to say this out loud. - Which one? - Nominclature. (laughing) - Thank you. (laughing) - Please, please offer us the definition of this word. - The definition of the word, I'm not 100% on it 'cause I just kind of popped up in my head. Just like four days and I'm actually a word. - It is actually a word. - I think it's going by a certain Nominclature is like a name slash reputation. - Okay. - I think so. - Nominclature. - So T-I and T-Pains are different Nominclatures. - Oh. - Yeah. - Okay. (laughing) - Yeah. - Like a moniker. - My understanding of that. - Like a moniker. - Correct. - Of sorts. - But it comes with the reputation that comes with the name. - Man, so what happened in school did you go? - I dropped out in eighth grade. - You dropped out in eighth grade. - Yeah. - Okay. Yet you possess a certain level of interlink that surpasses. (laughing) - You're still listening. - Yeah. - Ten years. - I think it was the, not having the urge to be the coolest nigga and relinquish that carelessness that came with that. you know. I was cool with learning words of the day. I was cool with actually watching, smelling bees. I just wasn't smart. I was just watching this yet. You're like, "You are smart." I think you are smart. - There's different kinds of smart. A lot of people that graduated that were in school with me, they've memorized what they learned in school, you know what I mean? But they may not be smart. - But you took it upon yourself to go out and to study and learn the things that were important to you in your advance. - Absolutely. - And it helped me out a lot when I got married, my wife. - It helps to be smart when you're married. - Right, it helps me get smart because a lot of people, like my wife is super sweet. You know, she's white passing. Black curly hair. She's white passing. She's white passing. - People think she's white. People think she's white, but she's make she's black and white. - Okay. - And anytime we win anywhere, like people were like, "Man, are you okay?" (laughing) Like, man, you need to tell us you want to, you know. This man bothers you. - I think twice if you. - Right, yeah, you know, so I took it upon myself. I was like, "You know what? "I'm gonna start carrying myself better." You know, I want to make sure that I speak clearly. I want to make sure that people don't feel threatened by me. And I learned that started kind of advancing my business. And it started really helping out with everything that I was doing in the business world as well. And you know, when people started saying, "You sound like a surfer now or you talking proper?" I'm like, "Okay, which one of us is asking for a ride right now?" (laughing) - Sound cool as fuck, walking down the road. (laughing) But, you know, it was just, you know, and I realized like how much I was putting on, you know, just to be in the cool crowd. And how much extra accent I was putting on my voice in order to seem like I was, you know, just, you know, cool in everybody, isn't she? Like that's what it kind of, it was one, I started becoming, quote unquote smarter, to, you know, protect my wife and protect, you know, her image and, you know, just her reputation with me being around. - That's what's up ahead of you, you know? - That was something, yeah. My wife made me smart too, you know, but it was kind of by testing me. (laughing) And just by testing and challenging me everything, 'cause when I, when I say things in most rooms, (laughing) you feel me? It's usually accepted, acknowledged, and agreed. - Yeah, most rooms, as in most rooms. - When I say shit, well, my wife, well, she immediately goes to chat G-B-T. - Yeah. - Immediately. - I'm jacking up. - Well, wait a minute. - Right. - This doesn't apply in this case, because-- - Absolutely. - 'Cause say something with a not gott of note. I mean, I gotta be emphatic about, you know what I'm saying? About what the fuck I'm talking about when I'm speaking in her presence and that, you know, that is what it is. - Yeah, that'll do it. - That'll do it. - Makes me self-check. Think, Thrice. - How to present, yeah. - Yeah, we know a lot of people that say something loud enough and with enough confidence in everybody in the room, gonna believe you. - Yeah. - So you gotta have that one person who's like, "That's not true." - That's not true. - Check it out. (laughing) - I'm checking out. - Nope. - I don't believe that. - Yeah, that's how my wife has made me shit. - Yeah, yeah. - Man, well, look, man, I don't wanna hold you up no more. I appreciate your talent. - Absolutely right. - I appreciate your talent and your contribution. - Yes, sir, same, same, same, same. - You feel me, and I-- - Everybody gonna look up splack of LA in that room. (laughing) Just go look up. (laughing) - Hey, man, I see you on the road. - Always, always, yes, sir. - Always, yeah, sir. - Have a respect, this is being expedition, this is the expedition, I am too, T.I.A. (upbeat music)