It had been a while since T-Pain’s signature sound invaded airwaves and got stuck in heads — until “Up, Down (Do This All Day),” which he released late last year to kick-start a comeback following a bout with depression.
The single was certainly a strong start, and the remix, featuring Lil Boosie, Kid Ink and B.o.B (who was also on the original) didn’t hurt either.
“I wanted to make something different,” the Florida native told MTV News recently about the remix, which dropped in May. “The music has been missing so much lately, I feel like we need to bring those techniques back. You know, nobody’s done, like, a key change in a long time — like when the song goes up a whole note in the middle of it.”
As for how he secured a feature from the recently-released Boosie — an artist who has surely been getting plenty of requests for features: Pure persistence.
“I just would not stop calling,” Pain said. “I just had to DJ Khaled him to death; just kept calling, kept calling, calling.”
The Louisiana product was supposed to get on two other songs for the singer following his release in March, but then Pain thought, why not get him on a remix to a song that’s already a hit?
“Soon as I sent him ‘Up, Down,’ it was insanely fast,” he said. “I can’t even believe it. Maybe he was already in the booth when I sent it to him.”
And there’s more on deck.
“He and I have been trying to come up with a collaboration that is gonna be produced DJ Montay,” he added. “It’s about, all this, of course, the time that he was in jail, and you know, all the stuff that he went through in there, what revelations he came to while he was in there; stuff like that.”
In addition to the remix, T-Pain is gearing up for the release of his upcoming album, Stoicville: The Phoenix, with the second official single, “Drankin Patna.” The music, along with his I Am T-Pain Tour, is serving as his reintroduction. But he wants to make certain that you don’t forget how he got here.
“You never realize what you’re missing until it’s gone,” he said. “‘Why isn’t music sounding like it used to? What’s going on with music? Oh, it’s because T-Pain isn’t here.’ So, you know, I had to come back and let people know, I am T-Pain. I am what made the game what it is right now. I am that. I am all. I am the best. I am the greatest.”
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