T-Pain Says He’s Removed His Songwriting Credits From Country Songs Due to Racism

Michael Saponara
·2 min read
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T-Pain’s ranging artistry has seen him dabble outside the lines of R&B/hip-hop plenty of times throughout his decorated career, but he’s recently opened up about even writing country songs.

The Florida-bred singer-rapper said in a recent TikTok that he’s penned some country tracks for artists, but ended up removing his name from the songwriting credits because of racism he’s experienced.

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“Good music is good music. I don’t give a f–k where it come from or what style it come in,” he began in the video. “All the people I know feel like it’s not cool to listen to other genres of music. Country music is where I get all my harmonies.”

T-Pain continued: “I done wrote a lot of country songs [but] I stopped taking credit for it because as cool as it is to see your name in those credits and s–t like that, the racism that comes after it is just like, ‘I’ll just take the check. Don’t put me on that s–t. I’ll just take the check, bro. Nevermind, dude.'”

The 38-year-old didn’t reveal any context as to who he’s written country songs for or if he’s doing it under a different alias. (his real name is Faheem Rashad Najm.)

But just last week, The Breakfast Club dug up a years-old interview during which T-Pain delved deeper into his ghostwriting phase, and during the chat said he’s worked with the likes of Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan during his two-year stint living in Nashville.

“I write a lot of country music for huge country artists that would rather not have it known that I write for them,” he said. “I got back up with Taylor Swift, Luke Bryan, Rhett Akins [and] Dallas Davidson. So, you know, I’ve written a lot for a lot [for] very important country artists.”

Per Songview, T-Pain isn’t credited as a writer on any songs by the aforementioned artists. However, he did connect with Swift for a parody of her “Love Story,” which the duo flipped to “Thug Story” and performed a recorded version of it at the 2009 CMT Awards.

Billboard has reached out to T-Pain’s reps for comment.

Last year, T-Pain leaned into his affinity for country music when he covered David Allan Coe’s “Tennessee Whiskey” as part of his On Top of the Covers album.

“Tennessee Whiskey” has been covered a ton over the years, and Chris Stapleton delivered a memorable performance of the record at the Country Music Awards with Justin Timberlake in 2015.

Listen to the “Buy U a Drank” artist’s explanation as well as The Breakfast Club‘s discussion below.

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