T-Pain Introduced Auto-Tune To The 2000s But Credits Snoop Dogg For Making It Acceptable To Use In Hip-Hop
T-Pain’s name is inseparable from Auto-Tune, the software that defined his signature sound. But before the world embraced it, he faced relentless criticism—until Snoop Dogg made it cool. In a conversation on The Big Podcast With Shaq, Teddy P recalled how the music industry initially resisted his Auto-Tune-heavy vocals. “That’s all there was—resistance,” he said. “Until somebody cool did it. Who made it cool? Snoop. Snoop did it, and then it was totally fine. Everybody was like, okay, I guess we can listen to it.”
Though he didn’t mention a specific song, T-Pain likely referred to Snoop Dogg’s 2007 hit Sensual Seduction. At the time, Snoop openly admitted he was channeling T-Pain’s sound, using Auto-Tune to give the track its futuristic feel. Once Snoop adopted it, the same critics who once dismissed the technique suddenly embraced it. Snoop Dogg continues to be one of the biggest names in pop culture after receiving huge reviews for his hosting at last year’s Olypmics.
T-Pain Auto-Tune
Beyond the Auto-Tune conversation, T-Pain recently found himself at the center of another debate—this time about his finances. After flying commercial instead of using a private jet, rumors swirled that he was struggling financially. He responded in the most T-Pain way possible: by giving fans a tour of his luxury yacht. “I guess I’m broke. Anyway, here’s the yacht I’m staying on,” he said, panning the camera across the lavish vessel.
He also took to Instagram to mock the backlash, captioning a post with a sarcastic, “yOu dIdNt fLY pRIvaTe???” Days earlier, he had shared a video explaining why private jet travel often isn’t worth the cost. He held up an app displaying the price of chartering a Gulfstream from Atlanta to Las Vegas—$126,574. “Why would you do that? In what world is that smart?” he asked. “Y’all would be like, he going broke again.” His caption summed up his philosophy: “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense. Pass me the Biscoff cookies.”