There's still a few places that song can't go, because even a decade later, it's ahead of its time. Probably even "I'm 'n Luv (Wit a Dancer)" couldn't pass muster. "I'm 'n Luv (Wit a Stripper)" didn't make the cut either time. To commemorate the 10-year anniversary of T-Pain's debut album and the one-year anniversary of his appearance, NPR invited him back last week for a command performance. Certainly the novelty was the draw for those who had. This could be due to the instinctive love a certain demographic has for R&B or hip-hop only when it's recontextualized and stripped down, but an audience who'd never heard T-Pain probably just saw an enchanting soul singer. "Buy U a Drank" unplugged turned out to be a smash with NPR listeners. Last year, T-Pain recorded the most popular Tiny Desk Concert in NPR history, accompanied by a lone keyboard player and joking that his Auto-Tune had been surgically inserted. Sometimes it's just a little concealer, sometimes it's neon pink fake lashes, and if it's going to be noticeable, might as well go big.
![im in love with a stripper tpain release date im in love with a stripper tpain release date](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E9bykl1cs98/maxresdefault.jpg)
The creator of Auto-Tune has been quoted as comparing it to cosmetics, appropriately. It resembles nothing so much as a strip club customer who goes on a tirade about how much he dislikes surgically augmented bodies even though he would not for one second stand for a woman who decided to leave her body hair in its authentic state. When it comes to popular music, an art form whose entire existence depends on the unanticipated applications of new technologies, drawing the line at a particular effect is a mental feat. He used it to screw it up and make it do what the human voice technically could not. T-Pain never used the device to make his voice sound unrealistically perfect. T-Pain is at least partly responsible for both 808s and Heartbreak and The Blueprint 3, one of which used a lot of Auto-Tune and one of which called for its death. She popping, she rolling, she rolling She climbing that pole and I’m in love with a stripper She tripping, she playing she playing I’m not going nowhere girl, I’m staying I’m in love with a stripper. In addition to being at the edge of a trend in subject matter, T-Pain's use of Auto-Tune marked/caused a huge increase in the program's use and an accompanying backlash against it, uniting Jay Z and Death Cab for Cutie in their public stands against vocal processing. I’m not going nowhere girl, I’m staying I’m in love with a stripper.
![im in love with a stripper tpain release date im in love with a stripper tpain release date](https://img.wattpad.com/cover/2657421-352-ke1b091.jpg)
The songs that history will record as the last butt rock stripper anthems came forth shortly thereafter in a death rattle of trying-to: Buckcherry's "Crazy Bitch" (2005), Kid Rock's "So Hott" (2007), and Nickelback's "Shakin' Hands" (2008). The strip club anthems of the 1980s- "Cherry Pie", "Pour Some Sugar on Me", "Girls, Girls, Girls"-and the nu-metal of the '90s were fading memories. All that said, T-Pain is still more misguided than mediocre, which keeps Epiphany from being a failure.After 2005, rock radio continued to dwindle into a niche market. Plus, Epiphany is overstuffed, with nothing that tops last album's "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)," and the more mature side never quite gels with the irresponsible party side. Three alcohol-based numbers, two of which are highlights ("Bartender" featuring Akon and "Buy U a Drank" with Yung Joc) and one that's just filler ("Tipsy"), could have been spread across three albums instead of dropped on one. These vibrant touches and bold moments make the album worth pulling for, but T-Pain's ongoing issue with beating good ideas to death has now extended to just fair ideas. As far as "mature," there's a gripping interlude four tracks in, "I Got It" (the "it" being HIV), and then the ambitious "Suicide," which has more depth and feeling than expected. Take the futuristic reggae number "Shottas" or the busy "Church," which dares the listener to hang onto its hectic beat. Problem is, T-Pain has a long way to go before he gets anywhere close to Kels' "I Believe I Can Fly." Instead he's got a fat sack of "Thoia Thoing"s with hooks, slick sounds, and shameless lyrics along with the occasionally crafty production twist. Kelly and his juggling of the sublime and ridiculous.
![im in love with a stripper tpain release date im in love with a stripper tpain release date](https://media.gq.com/photos/596fb4e075d2965381f8be4a/master/pass/t-pain-emotional.jpg)
![im in love with a stripper tpain release date im in love with a stripper tpain release date](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GYpBtn44Yo4/T6atcnSJ1EI/AAAAAAAAC4c/IMxOdjYkbu8/s1600/T-Pain6.jpg)
The singer, rapper, writer, producer, voicebox abuser, and favorite target of many hip-hop fans is one of the few who could put an effervescent ode to a jiggly stomach ("Some people like booty/And ain't nothing wrong with that/Ain't nothing more groovy/Than when that stomach moving") on an album that dare pimp the word "mature." "Stomach" is not an empowering anthem for thick women, and when the world "nut" appears as a verb, it's easy to remember R. From its title to its more poignant numbers, T-Pain's Epiphany wears the tag line "more mature album" proudly, which it is, sort of, half of the time.