Rapper and singer T-Pain has had phenomenal success in his career, both for himself and working with other artists. But while there are many who has respected his craft and contributions to the music industry, there have been those that have blatantly disrespected the Florida native, both publicly and behind the scenes. The autotuned singer recently revealed a disappointing ordeal between himself and Usher, and now the iconic artist/songwriter is stepping forward with another instance of disrespect from another creative. This time, from producer and former rapper turned reality star, Hitmaka.
For many that have dreams of entering the music industry or entertainment business, they also harbor the goals of working with some of their favorite artists or creatives. What some of these people don’t realize, are that some of these artists may not be what they have envisioned them to be. For T-Pain, he realized that he was no different from many others with those same dream. For, no matter what level of success you may achieve or the gifts that you possess, you still are susceptible to feeling that same amount of disregard or disrespect from someone.
T-Pain had a recent conversation with Angie Martinez where he discussed his own experiences within the music industry. While the “Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” singer clarifies that he was not necessarily “treated bad” he admits that he did encounter many adversities. And as it pertained to speaking on his experiences with certain artists publicly where the culture was to speak good about them no matter how you felt, he admits, “I just didn’t know, because of the facade that was laid in the industry before I got in it. I didn’t think anybody was as much of an a–hole as they actually are,” he said to Martinez. “And then I come out and say, ‘Hey, did you know that this person we all really like is an a–hole?’ And everybody’s like, ‘Nah, you’re not supposed to say that’s your brother and you work with him. And then leave it alone.”
For T-Pain, however, that idea was somewhat “weird” for him as he pondered why everyone adapted to that process. “This isn’t weird for anybody [else]?” T-Pain poses the question. From watching people clown other artists with him being present in the studio to other situations, T-Pain expressed confusion at the level of normalcy these things occur.
Martinez then turns the tables on T-Pain and asks him if he’s ever been an unnecessary jerk to anyone he’s encountered in the industry. He shares that he was never “initially,” which left room to assume that he perhaps has been but with reason. T-Pain then ushers in the story of Hitmaka, aka Yung Berg, who made claims that the Florida native was unpleasant with him the first time they met in the studio.
He explains what happened saying, “This man literally came to my house [and] showed me beats and hooks. He gave me a song called Bad B***h Linkup, and I wanted it.” When he expressed to Hitmaka his desire to have the song, Hitmaka then told him that Ludacris was also vying for the record. In order for T-Pain to receive the song from Hitmaka, the producer told T-Pain that he would have to cough up a sum of $10,000, immediately.
This would shock T-Pain as he only stated that he liked the song, but did not give any mention of immediately putting the record out. Upon hearing this, T-Pain states that Hitmaka directly insinuated that he was “broke.” He also recalls Hitmaka drinking “a whole bottle of Patron, by himself,” so he wouldn’t remember what really occurred that night. T-Pain goes on to claim that Hitmaka referred to himself as a “trust fund baby” who would be alright whether or not he was paid for the record, but that was not where the disrespect stopped.
According to T-Pain, his wife tried to quiet the situation while also attempting to remind Hitmaka of previous statements he made in the conversation. Hitmaka responds by shunning his wife, telling her to butt out of the conversation as he feels she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. “He told my wife to shut up… In my house,” T-Pain recalled. Hear T-Pain tell his version of the story below at the 13:00 minute mark.
