AutoTune aficionado T-Pain's influence on pop music extends far beyond his own discography. The "Buy U a Drank" singer has written tracks for Lil Wayne, Nelly, Akon and, in secret, several country artists.
T-Pain revealed on Instagram this week that he's heavily influenced by country music and has been writing country songs for some time now — but the response to his involvement forced him to continue his work anonymously.
"Country music is where I get all my harmonies. Country and gospel music, that's where all my harmonies come from," he said. "I done wrote a lot of country songs, [but] stopped taking credit for it because as cool as it is to see your name in those credits and shit like that, the racism that comes after it is just like — I'll just take the cheque."
Although he didn't directly reveal which country tracks he might be responsible for, his fans were already clamouring for him to divulge his yeehaw credentials. Their wish came true — on the Breakfast Club radio show the next day, host DJ Envy played an old, archived clip of T-Pain discussing his side gig as a ghostwriter.
"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, Dallas Davidson. So, you know, I've written a lot for a lot of very important country artists."
Check out both clips below.