T-Pain at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds -- August 1.
Thursday, August 1, 8 p.m.
Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, 2815 West Locust Street, Davenport IA
Boasting two songs that peaked Billboard charts in "Kiss Kiss" by Chris Brown and "Low" by Flo Rida, the latter of which was named third in the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade, rap and R&B sensation T-Pain acts as grandstand headliner for the August 1 Mississippi Valley Fair, the artist's "Good Life" and "Blame It" winners of Grammy Awards for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Performance, respectively.
Born Faheem Rashad Najm in 1984, T-Pain is known for popularizing creative use of Auto-Tune pitch correction, often used with extreme parameter settings to create electronic-styled vocal performances. Blending its use with R&B and hip hop sensibilities, T-Pain become a prominent figure in both genres throughout the 2000s. Other music industry artists, such as Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Future, and Travis Scott, have since utilized Auto-Tune to a similar effect.
T-Pain began his recording career as part of the Tallahassee, Florida-based hip hop group, Nappy Headz. He independently released his debut solo mixtape Back @ It in 2004, and consequently signed with Senegalese-American singer Akon through his label Konvict Muzik, in a joint venture with Jive Records the following year. His 2005 debut single, "I'm Sprung" was quickly met with commercial success, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and receiving platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Its follow-up, "I'm 'n Luv (Wit a Stripper)" (featuring Mike Jones), saw further commercial success at number five on the chart; both served as lead singles for his debut studio album, 2005's Rappa Ternt Sanga. Its moderate reception was succeeded by his second album, 2007's Epiphany, which peaked atop the U.S. Billboard 200 and spawned the chart-topping Billboard Hot 100 single "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" (featuring Yung Joc), as well as the top-40 single "Bartender" (featuring Akon). His third album, 2008's Three Ringz, was preceded by the single "Can't Believe It" (featuring Lil Wayne), and his fourth, 2011's Revolver, was preceded by "5 O'Clock" (featuring Wiz Khalifa and Lily Allen).
Meanwhile, T-Pain saw continued success as a guest performer on nine Billboard Hot 100 top-q0 single, among them "Shawty" by Plies, "Cyclone" by Baby Bash, "Good Life" by Kanye West, "Shawty Get Loose" by Lil Mama, "Got Money" by Lil Wayne, "Blame It" by Jamie Foxx, and "Hey Baby (Drop It to the Floor)" by Pitbull. A 12-time Grammy Award nominee and two-time winner, T-Pain founded the record label Nappy Boy Entertainment in 2005, and has signed rapper Travie McCoy to brief commercial success. Furthermore, he has produced and written material for other artists, and voice acted in film and television including Tom & Jerry, Freaknik: The Musical, The Cleveland Show, Squidbillies, and We Bare Bears.
T-Pain performs his Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds set at 8 p.m. on August 1, and $105-130 MVF Fun Cards are required for admittance into any and all Grandstand concerts this summer. For more information on the concert and the Mississippi Valley Fair, call (563)326-5338 and visit MVFair.com.
