Man of the Year

With all this end of the decade talk, a lot of people are publishing the best of this and the worst of that lists. It's all a bit much so I decided to make a one person list of who to watch in the new year/decade. The most obvious answer is President Obama. Sure, he has a national crisis on his hands but it pale in comparison to the burdens of my nominee. Who is this champion of the people, this savior of the nation? None other than your boy from the 'hood, T-Pain.

T-Pain: Man of the Year 2009

For those unfamiliar with T-Pain, he is a a hip-hop and R&B artist who came on the scene as a solo artist in 2005 with his debut album, Rappa Ternt Singa. Also, he has a thing for top hats. Why, out of all the people in the world, did I choose T-Pain? It all started a few months ago when my friend and I were looking for a good taco place and discussing the status of the music industry. My friend brought up T-Pain and said he was a joke, at best a self-parody who always hides behind his top hat, sunglasses and massive grill. Plus, he always uses Auto-Tune, which corrects and/or distorts his voice. The more I thought about the guy, the more I agreed with my friend. But despite T-Pain seeming more artifice than true musician, I slowly came to appreciate his personal brand and approach to music. I'd much rather watch a self-aware rapper in a top hat than the aggressive posturing of other rappers. T-Pain seemed to be willing to bring a lighthearted spirit to the rap game and make a fine living doing it. 

 He's only 24 and has a record that has sold at least a million copies. To me, that's impressive. But more than just a seller of music, he seems very brand conscious and uses it to his advantage. By brand conscious, I mean he is self-aware of the image he is projecting and how that can be perceived and/or marketed to the general public. Look at 50-Cent with the Vitamin Water deal or Snoop with his T-Mobile commercials or Roca Wear and Baby Phat. Rappers were once the dangerous outcasts that lived and worked on the fringes of society and music. They were drug dealers and vandals who came off the streets and made music with lyrics like, "...motha fuck the po-lice..." and song titles like "Cop Killer." Now Snoop is on TV telling us we should buy a Sidekick. He's gone from gangster to lifestyle icon in the span of a few years. He's like the hip-hop version of Kramer, an eccentric, but lovable neighbor who, no matter what trouble he gets in, can always be forgiven with a knowing nod of an audience member's head. 

 T-Pain, being relatively young, grew up with fun-loving Snoop rather than thug Snoop. Tupac was killed when T-Pain was in the 5th grade.  When T-Pain was a kid rap was no longer a purveyor of social reform and a voice from the streets but a supplier of image and lifestyle. Music videos today are filled with rappers smoking cigars, driving Bentleys, and being surrounded by strippers. And through it all, the rappers keep a straight face. Their videos aren't fantasies but earnest aspirations, signs that the kid from the streets has made it in a big way. What I feel T-Pain brings to the scene is a sly wink. He is aware of how seriously rap takes itself and how ridiculous it can seem (If spotting Cadillac Escalades with rims and LCD screens were a drinking game, you'd be drunk in under an hour). 

 Some fans, however, have grown tired of the  rap cliches and want something new, In comes T-Pain with a a playful image and danceable tracks. One needs to only look at his album name (Rappa Ternt Singa) to understand his tone. My entire argument for T-Pain's greatness rests solely on two videos. One is for his song, "I Can't Believe It" and the other is for his guest appearance on SNL's digital short, "I'm on a Boat." 

"I Can't Believe It" is largely circus themed and begins with an image of T-Pain opening his palm to reveal a smaller T-Pain who begins rapping/Auto-Tuning his way into our hearts. Then, there's a close up of T-Pain where his top hat pops open to reveal three more T-Pains and a deer head wearing a top hat and shades. Later, a teddy bear with shades and a top hat shows up, along with contortionists, a Ferris wheel, and a largely unintelligible verse from Lil' Wayne. All of this done in a very trippy, Yellow Submarine like way where things just appear out of nowhere and explode from top hats. For the full effect, watch the video below.  

 The second video is "I'm on a Boat" which was done for Saturday Night Live and, as such, is meant to be funny and satirical. T-Pain, again decked out in shades and a top hat, hangs out with SNL's Andy Samberg and raps about how cool it is to be on a boat. I wouldn't even call what he does rapping. He's really just the featured artist/MC who repeats the words "I'm on a boat" about 200 times. But he's doing it while wearing a tuxedo and a nautical themed top hat. Most of the humor is derived from the lyrics and T-Pain is the lucky dude who gets to be featured in the video. His willingness to partake, however, proves his self-awareness both as a rapper and a promoter of his brand.

   

 There have been many a music video that includes rappers on boats (i.e. Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin'"). In true Hype Williams fashion (the director of "Big Pimpin'" and by the way, what happened to that guy?), the "Big Pimpin'" video features fish eye lens work, women in bikinis, and women in bikinis walking in slow motion for dramatic effect. We get it, Jay-Z. You're a bad ass. Mad props to you and yours.

By 2009 the whole rap music video aesthetic had become played out and predictable. Andy Samberg, along with his Lonely Island crew (Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer), capitalized on rap video's tired imagery and brought T-Pain along for the ride. Who else but a man whose entire career is based on self-parody could have been in that video? 

 Some might argue that that's all T-Pain is--self-parody. That's certainly what my friend said when we were looking for tacos. And maybe all T-Pain is is a carefully marketed hype machine with no real skills. But the man sells records And not just to people who saw him on SNL and picked up his album on a lark. He's also reaching fans who feel he's as legitimate as his gangster rap predecessors. Whether T-Pain is talented or not, he's still loved by millions and making money while living his dream. Looks like the joke is on us.