T-Pain

For weeks, pop, country and R&B had been switching foot to dominate the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Rap was not within sight until T-Pain's "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" successfully landed the very first spot. The song first peeked at #84 and stayed in the chart for seven remarkable weeks by climbing at a steady rate until it reached the highest spot. Though having a slow hike, the single that is featuring Young Joc, has been the greatest airplay gainer for seven times. So unconventional does the song that it also receives various remixes from his fellow warriors such as T.I., R. Kelly, Stat Quo, Pitbull, P. Diddy, Kanye West and many more. This single proves two things about him; that he actually can pen a number 1 hit and that he hasn't lost his niche since "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)". With the single's strength, his album "Epiphany" might encounter the same fate upon its release in June 2007. This is probably why he is made one of the musicians trusted to bring back the career of pop queen Britney Spears.

Determination proves to be working out great in T-Pain's life. Born as a middle child of five in 1985, Faheem Najm learnt a lot from his Entrepreneur father who was doing a lot of music himself. His dad often took him to the studio whereby he watched and learnt carefully until he could establish his own 'mini' studio. At age 10, his bedroom was converted into a small mixing pot, which at that time already facilitating a keyboard, a beat machine and a four-track recorder. Using the minimal equipments, little T-Pain would compose tunes, trying out beats and eventually piled a huge collection of songs. And then he started the singing. However, seeing that everybody around him did rapping, he began to pursue the same thing and actually was avid at it. He said, "The rapping was just something that I started doing cause I thought it was cool." This routine continued until he landed a role in a five-piece rapping outfit called "Nappy Headz". The group had a good start in 2000 through the songs "Robbery" and "F.L.A." but soon the flame died and he started thinking about getting the spotlight alone.