T-Pain is always racking up the business moves — from his recent restaurant to his success on Twitch, and now an extended partnership with Lipton Iced Tea, the Tallahassee legend continues to boss up.
In fact, his level-up has every bit of intention behind it, the 37-year-old entertainer explained how he looks to artists like Killer Mike and David Banner for inspiration.
“David Banner, Killer Mike, you know people that look like me that have done this on their own and succeeded, those are my biggest inspirations,” said T-Pain in an exclusive interview with AfroTech.
His journey to success has a lot of highs and lows, but at this point, the “Can’t Believe It” singer is having fun, remaining true to himself, and expanding on his foundation to leave behind a legacy rooted in authenticity.
Success In Gaming
The “Buy U A Drank” crooner isn’t just a hot commodity in the music industry, T-Pain has actually been using his love of gaming to connect with fans for years.
“I’ve been on Twitch since 2014, people just started paying attention,” he explained. “But it’s fun being on there and my consistency is all over the place. I don’t stream every night and people wouldn’t have known, but once everybody got sat down with the pandemic, they had to find something to watch and I guess my channel came up and things kind of blew up. So, I’ve been on it for a long time.”
A Winning Spirit
As previously reported by AfroTech, T-Pain revealed that he has actually brought in more income from gaming than the music industry. Now, he’s at a place of full independence. He’s learned from his financial hurdles and how to manage his funds to set himself up for future success.
The difference now is that he’s watching his money himself and “not really counting on anybody to watch it.”
“It was such a surprise. That one day where I was like, ‘Yeah, somebody just moved out of the house in front of me, I want to go buy that house.’ And someone on my team was like, “You ain’t got no money dude.'” And I was like, ‘What?'” recalled the 36-year-old entertainer. “It was a surprise because I wasn’t watching [my money].”
This time around, he’s making sure that he’s not making the same mistakes.
“I always ask questions now. ‘How do we not make this happen anymore? How do we make sure this part doesn’t happen? If we go into a deal like this, I’ve been in a deal like this, I’ve been in a deal like that before, these are the parts I didn’t like. Let’s make sure those aren’t there and move over,” T-Pain further explained.
At this stage, his thought process is far more different when approaching new partnerships and business ventures than in the past.
Learning From The Best
Entertainers turned businessmen such as David Banner and Killer Mike have played an integral role in his new outlook on his career.
“David Banner came from music, went to speaking, started his own production company and he just went down all these routes on his own,” said T-Pain. “Those are the people I admire, especially if they look like me.”
Ain't No Party Like A T-Pain Party
As an independent artist with his hand in many pots, T-Pain continues to have fun with it, which is why he’s excited to partner with Lipton Iced Tea for the second year in a row.
“It’s that time, you know what I mean? Not the time in my career, just the time for everybody to interact with each other,” he expressed. “Obviously, we know that the pandemic is not over, but we’re still taking safety precautions and we just want to get close to people again.”
