T-Pain
January 28, 2008
Faheem Najm (born June 30, 1985 in Tallahassee, Florida), known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American hip hop, R&B Singer-songwriter and producer who has been noted for using the auto-tune effect (often mis-cited as a vocoder effect) in his singing.[1][2] He was born to entrepreneur Muslim parents, Shasheem Najm and Aliyah Najm.[3] At the age of ten, Faheem reworked his bedroom into a small studio with a keyboard, beat machine and four-track recorder, and began composing music. Faheem later graduated from James S. Rickards High School.[3] Prior to becoming a solo singer, Faheem was part of the Tallahassee rap group Nappy Headz, allowing T-Pain to start his career as a solo artist.[4] In 2002, he founded his own label, Hard & B, and soon caught the spotlight as a solo artist when his song “I’m Fucked Up”, a reworked version of Akon’s “Locked Up”, gained popularity in the region. Akon noticed the song and signed T-Pain to his newly formed Konvict Music record label.
