T-Pain

Born in Tallahassee, Florida, on September 30, 1984, T-Pain (real name Faheem Najm) started out with Florida rap collective Nappy Headz before Akon discovered T-Pain's cover of his hit single "Locked Up" and signed him to his label Konvict Muzik. He became renowned for pioneering the use of the auto-tune effect, turning his voice into a robotic, digital sound and scoring the 2005 hits "I'm Sprung" and "I'm In Luv (Wit a Stripper)", and the technique would sweep the world of hip hop with Kanye West, Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne all using it. Single "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin)" and second album Epiphany (2007) both shot to Number 1 in the US and T-Pain teamed up with Akon on the Top Five hit "Bartender", before he went on to work on tracks for a whole host of artists - including Lil Kim, Flo Rida and Chris Brown. Lil Wayne appeared on the lead single "Can't Believe It" from third album Three Ringz (2008) and T-Pain teamed up with Lily Allen and Wiz Khalifa for his biggest UK hit "5 O'Clock" (2011), before winning a Grammy Award for "Blame It", his collaboration with Jamie Foxx. Following Revolver (2011), the fifth album Oblivion in 2017 was his final major release, before 1UP (2019) and On Top of the  Covers (2023), issued on Nappy Boy.