Artist T-Pain

Brad Barket

Website
T-Pain

It’s easy to pin the blame for Auto-Tune’s omnipresence on the man who made it popular, but whereas some artists use it as an annoying (and unlikely) means of over-emoting (looking at you, Kanye), at least T-Pain seems to realize that his signature sound is ridiculous. If the man didn’t have a sense of humor, would we have ever heard his silly collaborations with Taylor Swift and The Lonely Island? His most recent album, 2008’s Thr33 Ringz, featured a lineup of more conventional special guests, many of them heavy-hitters like T.I., Lil Wayne, and Mary J. Blige. As for a drop date for the finished follow-up, RevolveR, T-Pain claims he won’t release it until album sales pick up. So... never?

Updated 11/22/2010