T-Pain Impressed with His Voice Long Before The Masked Singer

T-Pain Sang Without Auto-Tune Long Before 'The Masked Singer' : Watch His Stripped-Down Performance

T-Pain proved his vocal chops when he sat down for NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts series in 2014

Published on February 28, 2019 04:44PM EST

Audiences may have been shocked to find out T-Pain was the smooth and soulful voice behind The Masked Singer’s monster, but the artist had long ago proved he didn’t need Auto-Tune.

In 2014, the singer and rapper shocked millions around the globe when he sat down for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts series, showing people that underneath all of the digital distortion, he can really sing.

“This is weird as hell for me. Never done anything like this,” he said at the top of the concert, before going on to address the elephant in the room.

“I know everybody’s wondering where the Auto-Tune is gonna come from. It’s okay, I got it in my pocket. It’s totally fine. Got it right here, it’s all surgically inserted,” he joked, before launching into his 2007 classic “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’).”

The video, which has been viewed over 14 million times on YouTube, is peppered with shocked comments from fans, who clearly had no idea what T-Pain was capable of.

“This is one of the most shattering things I’ve ever seen,” one commenter wrote. “Always assumed he didn’t have a good voice and used autotune as an instrument instead. He has a perfect voice.”

Added another, “I feel like an idiot for ever dissing this dude. He’s amazing.”

During an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered, T-Pain explained that though he generally “felt OK about being ridiculed for using Auto-Tune,” experiencing all that hate wasn’t easy.

“People started feeling like I was talentless. And, you know, at first, it was like, ‘Oh my god. This guy’s an innovator. He’s great. He’s doing things that no one can do.’ And then once people started doing it — it’s like giving video cameras to people that want to make movies. It got easy for everybody” he said.

“People thought I was using it to sound good. But I was just using it to sound different,” he continued. “And it turned into a whole stifling thing because it was what I did. You know what I’m saying? It’s what I do. And this is my style. I’m not gonna change my style because other people are starting to overuse it. Like, that’s just weird.”

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During the Fox reality competition series’ finale on Wednesday night, the Grammy Award-winning singer and rapper opened up about why he chose to compete on the show.

“I didn’t have a chance to come into the game with my natural voice and a lot of my peers did and they get accepted. This helped me get my voice out there,” said T-Pain, 33 — who was the last celebrity to sing for the night and performed Montell Jordan‘s “This Is How We Do It.”

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he added, “Suck it everybody who told me I couldn’t sing! I just won a singing competition! There’s nothing else you can tell me. It feels like I’m the king of the castle.”