Prolific rapper, performer, and songwriter T-Pain is not afraid to cross genres, as he moves easily from hip-hop and rap to pop and country. He has even written numerous songs in the country genre. However, there’s a particularly unsavory aspect of the country music world that T-Pain tries his best to avoid now, and that comes at the cost of his writing credits.
In a recent Instagram video, T-Pain called out the racism in the country music industry, a subject that many have been vocal about. Maren Morris, for example, employed her privilege as a white woman in country music to bring the disparity between white artists and Black artists to light.
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T-Pain began by noting that great art and music can come from anywhere, but that many people in his sphere feel that they aren’t allowed to cross genres. “Good music is good music,” he said. “I don’t give a f–k where it come from or what style it come in. All the people I know feel like it’s not cool to listen to other genres of music.”
He continued, “Country music is where I get all my harmonies. Country and gospel music — that’s where all my harmonies come from.”
[RELATED: T-Pain’s “War Pigs” Cover Receives an All-Time Stamp of Approval From Ozzy Osbourne]
T-Pain Admits to Rejecting Writing Credits on His Country Songs Due to Racism in the Industry
T-Pain isn’t grasping at straws when he pulls from gospel and country to influence his own music. Furthermore, gospel music has influenced modern country more than people realize. Go beyond songs about trucks, beer, and taking your lady out on Saturday night, and the roots of country music go all the way back to America’s early history, when white people were displaced by mountaintop removal and industrial unionism, and Black people worked as sharecroppers.
However, as T-Pain noted, there’s a darker side to the country music industry that cannot be abided. “I done wrote a lot of country songs,” T-Pain revealed. “Stopped taking credit for it because as cool as it is to see your name in those credits and s–t like that, the racism that comes after it is just like — I’ll just take the check. Don’t put me on that s–t; I’ll just take the check, bro.”
Featured Image by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images for BET
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