T-PAIN DITCHES AUTO TUNE

In 2009, Jay Z called for the "Death of Auto-Tune," and the perceived target was always believed to be T-Pain. The "Buy U a Drank" singer was responsible for changing the sound of pop music with hits from his own catalog and collaborations with the likes of Lil Wayne, R. Kelly, and Chris Brown. He even released his own chart-topping Auto-Tune app on the iTunes Store.

T-Pain's detractors blamed him for everything wrong with pop radio, and implied that he leaned so heavily on the synthetic, electronic vocal effects because he lacked the talent to sing without it.

After nearly 10 years on the scene, the Tallahassee, Florida, native (whose real name is Faheem Rasheed Najm) accepted the challenge to prove he could actually sing without Auto-Tune. Here, T-Pain performs three songs acoustically for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series and he sounds great.Accompanied by pianist Toro, T-Pain sings "Buy U a Drank," "Up Down (Do This All Day)," and his latest song, "Drankin Patna," sans special effects in front of a live audience during the 13-minute video posted on NPR's website Wednesday.

Though a seasoned arena performer, T-Pain is visibly nervous in front of the intimate crowd. "This is weird as hell for me," he says as he greets the audience, sitting on a stool in front of a microphone stand. "Never done anything like this."T-Pain admits being self-conscious about how the crowd will react to hearing his real singing voice. "I know everyone is wondering where Auto-Tune is going to come from," he says, prompting giggles from the viewers. "It's OK. I got it in my pocket."

But there was no need to worry. He sounds surprisingly good from his opening ad-libs and rifts for the stripped down rendition of "Buy U a Drink," his first No. 1 hit. As he moves into the verse, he closes his eyes as he sings. The audience is silent, but erupts in applause when he wraps, pleasantly surprised by the dexterity of his emotive styling good enough to play next to his contemporaries Trey Songz, Chris Brown, Drake, and August Alsina. After making a joke with a woman in the audience, taking a sip of water and twisting in is swivel seat; he exhales, and utters, "Ahhhhh, weird as hell!"T-Pain's much more comfortable by the second song, "Up Down (Do This All Day)." He cues Toro to "take it up a notch," and once the melody starts, he directs him to "speed it up a little bit." This time T-Pain keeps his eyes open, and earns a quick laugh when singing the song's first raunchy lyric: "booty going up …" As he relaxes, he transforms to his normal jovial stage persona, enthusiastically bobbing to the rhythm, waving his hands and getting into the song's groove. He feeds off the reaction to his creative self-editing of profanity and comical accounts of strip club encounters. By mid-song, he's singing in full voice, is more animated, and can handle it. The outpour of support from the audience lifts his spirits. He laughs incessantly, so proud that he hugs himself and rocks from side to side. He also nails the last song, "Drankin Patna," his new release. 

Considering how well he sings and how much flack he has received over the years, it is surprising that he had not previously demonstrated his true singing abilities. While he sounds good and warrants his success as a pop star, he did miss a couple notes here and there and strained his voice a little too much – but those aren't anything a couple sessions with a good vocal coach could not fixed. Ultimately, we are impressed and so are his fans on Twitter: