T-Pain is returning to Tallahassee for his 20th year anniversary.
To celebrate where it all began, T-Pain will host a free block party on T-Pain lane. T-Pain is investing in the next generation by partnering with Goldie Sound Productions to offer free studio time and an opening act performance to individual artists. Watch the video to see how OD, one of the original members of Nappy Headz, the group that started T-Pain’s career, remembers the legacy they left on Tallahassee.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
He put Tallahassee on the map and now he’s coming back home.
I’m Lyric Sloan, your Southwest Tallahassee neighborhood reporter.
T-Pain’s return is sparking excitement across the city, not just for a major concert, but for the way his music career continues to shape local talent and the industry as a whole.
Anticipation is building for T-Pain’s upcoming return, a homegrown artist who’s had a global impact on the music world
“T-Pain took Auto-Tune to a whole new level. It was around before him, but no one used it like he did. He made it a standard,” Adrian Dickey, Goldie Sound owner, said.
That standard was born right here in Tallahassee at Rickards High School.
Before his solo fame, T-Pain got his start with local rap group Nappy Headz, putting Tallahassee on the map.
“Everywhere we went, people wanted to know where we were from. A lot of people did not think we were from Tallahassee; they thought some big city like Miami. We were proud of our roots being from Tallahassee, and we wanted to show everyone that Tallahassee has flavor and we have talent as well,”
OD, original Nappy Headz member, said.
That pride in Tallahassee never left and now, two decades later, it’s come full circle, as T-Pain makes his way back to where it all began.
October 17, T-Pain will host a free block party on the street recently renamed in his honor, T-Pain Lane.
Later that night, he’ll headline TP20: Celebrating 20 Years of T-Pain at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center.
” For one, it’s his 20th year anniversary and I believe that he wants to come back home to where it all started. You know the nostalgia and just the giving back to the people that were behind him from the jump,” OD said.
To give back to the city that raised him, T-Pain partnered with Goldie Sound Productions to host a contest at the local block party for local artists, giving away free studio time.
The first-place winner will have the opportunity to perform as the opening act for T-Pain that night at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, creating opportunities in the same place he started out.
“We are just excited to be able to partner with them on that because that is one thing we try to do here at Goldie Sound is to give independent artists those opportunities,” Dickey said.
Fans believe T-Pain’s performance on October 17 will be one to remember because, as a saying goes, there’s no place like home. In southwest Tallahassee, Lyric Sloan ABC 27.
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