Written By Danica Dow
With the release of T-Pain's third solo album, Thr33 Ringz, coming soon, SOHH sat down with eccentric Florida hit maker to talk about his killer collection of top hats, his thoughts on rappers swagger-jacking his signature singing style and the concept behind his new disc.
"The Thr33 Ringz concept is 'cause the industry is just like a circus," he explained. "You got the strong men, tattooed dudes, bearded ladies, elephants, tigers, all kinds of dumb crap."
Of course, every circus needs a ringleader and that's where T-Pain comes in.
"I got the most number 1s," he told SOHH. "I'm not just saying that. It's really on the charts. I got 11 number ones [in one year]. In the history of time, The Beatles got 13. So if I woulda got two more in that year I woulda beat The Beatles. That's why I'm the ringleader."
Thr33 Ringz is totally produced by Pain himself. It features guest appearances from Lil' Wayne, Kanye West, Ludacris and Rick Ross but it's not all love between T-Pain and the rest of the rap community. In fact, he calls out the rappers that have been copying his distinct auto-tune effect in a song called "Karaoke."
"If you steal the T-Pain effect or you try to do a T-Pain song, you['re] just singing karaoke," he said. "It's non-stop so I can't address somebody specifically. Everybody knows who they are. It makes no sense to call names. If you feel guilty then you feel guilty."
T-Pain is also known for his affinity for top hats but he's not so worried about people copying that trend.
"I get all my top hats custom made in London so unless you know my people that do that, you ain't gon' never see none like mine," he expressed. "I got too many of 'em already even for you to catch up."
The rapper from Tallahassee says his collection rounds out at about 300 hats that he keeps in a custom-made hat closet. He even has a red and black zippered hat, which he commissioned to coordinate with his Michael Jackson inspired "Beat It" blazer.
"I have a lot of outfits I need to match up," he said. "If I go buy a Kid Robot outfit, I'll send that to my stylist and she'll send that to London and have a Kid Robot hat made. That's how consistent we keep it."
The "rappa ternt sanga" says he wears his top hats everywhere.
"I wear 'em in normal life, mall, driving," he continued. "I just can't wear 'em in convertibles. They'll fly off. I had to find that out the hard way."
Thr33 Ringz is scheduled to his stores this fall.
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