As the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens squared off Sunday in the AFC Championship Game for a shot at playing in the Super Bowl, rapper T-Pain’s frenetic halftime performance had many fans asking, “Taylor who?”
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“Bro who cares about Taylor Swift being there…T-Pain is the halftime performer,” one fan wrote on Twitter. Another user tweeted, “In T-Pain we trust.”
“I did not have T-Pain doing Up Down here. That is fantastic,” another fan wrote.
Pop sensation Taylor Swift has become a fixture on Sunday screens since she and Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce went public with their relationship in September. But it was the Grammy-winning hip-hop artist who had fans abuzz Sunday afternoon as he took the stage at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
[Get Tickets to See T-Pain Perform Live]
T-Pain Shows His Range
Born Fareem Rashad Najm in Tallahassee, Florida, T-Pain is well known for bringing Auto-Tune into the hip-hop mainstream. His career has spanned nearly two decades and spawned hits such as “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper),” “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’),” and “I’m Sprung.”
Not to be pigeonholed, however, T-Pain released his cover album On Top of the Covers in March. The album included his take on classics such as Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” and Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” the latter of which earned effusive praise from the Prince of Darkness himself.
“This is the best cover of ‘War Pigs’ ever,” Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne wrote in a Twitter post sharing the video of T-Pain’s performance. “Why didn’t you guys call me?”
[RELATED: T-Pain’s “War Pigs” Cover Receives an All-Time Stamp of Approval From Ozzy Osbourne]
“Thug Story”
The “War Pigs” rendition wasn’t the first time T-Pain crossed genre lines. Back in 2009, the Florida rapper joined then-country star Swift at the CMT Music Awards for the premiere of “Thug Story,” a music-video parody of Swift’s 2008 smash hit “Love Story.” In it, they sing,
T-Pain: Singer turned gangster
Swift: You don’t wanna fight me!
T-Pain: Straight to the top
Swift: In my extra small white tee!
With T-Pain taking the stage at intermission, and Swift in the suite to cheer on her man, social media speculation arose about a potential reunion between the two.
“Fingers crossed Taylor joins T-Pain at halftime and we get to hear this classic collab Sunday,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
(Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images for BET)
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