Rappa Ternt Gamer: How T-Pain Made Twitch Into The Second Act Of His Career

By Luke Winkie


The calculus for T-Pain was simple. He plays a lot of video games; it's his primary hobby both at house and in the studio — he famously keeps a juiced laptop on hand at every recording session — so the idea of actually making cash from in back of a Xbox was kismet. All he required was someone to open the door. Then, in 2014, as T-Pain's manager watched his client spend another night on the road mired in twilight deathmatches, he introduced him to Twitch, a speedily growing live-streaming platform that Amazon had just paid for for $970 million.


"My manager was like, do think you could do this?" Says T-Pain, over the phone with MTV News. "So my boss made several phone calls, [a couple streamers] came to my hotel room, and so they showed me how to get on Twitch. I played Doom online, and I [fell in love with it] immediately."


It was everything he ever wanted, in a way he never knew how to articulate before. As soon as I'm gaming, and I do some cool shit, [I'll] come up to my partner, she'll be like, 'What's wrong?' I'm like, 'I just did some cool shit and nobody is going to be able to see it!'” He says. "Nobody was in the room with me! I'm so pissed off!" T-Pain was used to having a crowd at Summer Jam every year; right now he might take those people residence to his flexible black computer chair and show them his other major talent. As a fan, you watched gobsmacked because the man who wrote "Bartender" proved, in no uncertain terms, that he also had a decent Genji.


As of this writing, T-Pain has logged nearly 100 hours streaming on Twitch, accumulating over 100,000 total followers while doing so. He's moved past Doom and right now plays everything from uber-competitive esports-quality shooters like Overwatch, computer-lab classics like The Sims, and intelligentsia-only indie movers-and-shakers like Risk of Rain 2. It's all segment of a serendipitous second act for the artist. Fifteen years right after breaking through as a Auto-Tune-soaked hook guy — accountable for both a brief culture war in hip-hop and also a body of work that shadows over each person from Future to Kanye West — T-Pain has made himself into a bona fide "gamer celebrity." It was evident up close earlier this year at E3, a yearly trade show that serves as a joint news conference and consumer mecca for anyone interested in the industry. At Ubisoft's press event, attendees witnessed T-Pain holding court with a cadre of Rainbow Six pros, solidifying his place alongside the Kool Aid-dyed twenty-somethings like Ninja that give Twitch its texture. At a time as soon as the music industry is more amorphous and tenuous than ever, T-Pain has noticed a way to connect with a new fanbase, even as he keeps it up and continues to put out new music. (He released his latest album, 1UP, in February.)


The most bewildering part is how this 33-year-old has developed a native understanding of the culture. T-Pain looks like each person else on Twitch as soon as he's live: a ravioli-sized portal at the bottom corner of the screen points at his face, while a direct link to the gameplay comprises of the rest of the display. T-Pain is organic and affable as he's habitually been in his music, and in case you watch his stream, you'll visualize that he's learned the tried-and-true fundamentals required for anyone to cultivate an efficient Twitch career. He understands any time to read and interact with his chat. He understands what games work as spectator sports, and what games don't. He understands to don't get baited by the trolls. T-Pain says he's just doing what comes certainly, that his Twitch persona is just himself turned up to 11; he’s enjoying another victory in spare moments between his other obligations. "[People] are constantly giving me pointers on how to stream, yet for the most part, this is just how am As soon as I game," says T-Pain. "It's just me."


There was a time once T-Pain was one of the very few famed people on Twitch, although that isn't the case anymore. Last year, it was announced that more than a million people are tuned into the platform at any given time, so inevitably, other crossover artists have began to sniff around his turf. Deadmau5 has had his own controversial run on the platform, and there was that legendary night last year any time Drake, Ninja, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Travis Scott briefly derailed all of social media as they spent an evening playing Fortnite together. Yet T-Pain takes pride in both being one of the initial artists to migrate his talents to the gaming-as-entertainment ecosystem, as well as being the only one to take it seriously as an ongoing concern. "I get people saying, 'Oh, you're only on Twitch because Drake was on Twitch," he quips. "It's like, no, I was on Twitch for four years before Drake was on Twitch!"


It's become a fixture of his agency interests. As of 2019, T-Pain is represented by the Online Performers Order, a talent management organization that hosts a rolodex of established Twitch and YouTube stars who came up through gaming, rather than music. There really is perhaps no better way to sum up the definition of celebrity in 2019 than by considering how a guy like T-Pain shares representation with Mad Joe. That accidental synergy has lead him a whole new universe of fans: the people who were either unfamiliar with T-Pain's music, or simply didn't like T-Pain's music. All of those have had the chance of a reintroduction to man by way of the typical ground of video games, which eliminates any genre or generational barriers at the source.


"I've got a whole different audience right now. I've got people on Twitter everyday saying, 'I didn't know you played games! I don't really like your music, however you've got a fan in me,'" he says. "People that don't have an interest in my music, or have a preconceived notion me due to the music they do, they get to be able to see me just living my life on Twitch, and they're like, 'Oh, he's not an asshole!' That's pretty cool."


Nobody was more prepared for a pivot like this than T-Pain. Imagine the several different lives while in the 15 years he's been mobile in the music industry: Florida hardhead, ubiquitous guest-verse maestro, Lonely Island-bred meme, prolific record label executive, legendary Tiny Desk Concert performer. A turn as a Twitch streamer is just another chapter for an artist who learned a long time ago the significance of staying curious and proactive. T-Pain will usually be a gamer at heart; it's what makes his streams spirited and authentic, and distinctly not depressing in the way that the several embarrassing pop-culture crossover attempts this industry has seen in the past. Yet he's never lost sight of a fundamental truth: In 2019, stars need to diversify their portfolio to stay relevant. Some days, all that takes is a fast game of Doom.


"We have more access to the behind-the-scenes, it's like how artists coming up right now are refusing to sign record deals due to the years and years of artists complaining about how record labels work. As soon as people visualize that there's cash to be made on Twitch, more artists are going to Twitch," he finishes. "We're asking, 'OK, what can I do outdoor of rap.' Because people that are diversifying are getting celebrated. You don't actually have to be doing it well, as long as you're doing something, folks are going to be like, 'Oh man, he's so smart! He's putting cash everywhere!' It's an excellent argument in the barbershop. With plenty of diverse fans, folks are going to bring in income from several different streams, and several different walks of life. Liking weird shit is what makes you different."