T-Pain has always been a tricky artist to define. Is he a rapper? Is he a rhythm and blues singer? Is he a pop autotune artist? Or could he somehow be all three?
If there is one thing for sure, it is that T-Pain was one of the most influential musicians of the early aughts. His heavily autotuned vocals, intoxicatingly catchy lyrics and synth-driven beats had just about every audience member at the Royale on March 23 singing about strippers and Hennessy-soaked nights at the club.
When the musician announced back in December he would be going on tour to promote his most recent album, “1UP,” his most loyal fans rejoiced. But most people simply shrugged it off.
No one at the time could have possibly predicted that a little over a month later the two-time, Grammy-winning artist would emerge from a giant, fuzzy, blue-and-purple monster costume as the winner of the new competition show, “The Masked Singer.”
Like with everything else in T-Pain’s career, the musician blew up the reality show win to obscenely dramatic proportions, and so, the “1UP” tour is essentially his victory lap.
Last weekend’s stop in Boston was T-Pain’s fourth on a so far sold-out tour.
After Abby Jasmine warmed up the crowd with some pump-up jams from her album, “TRAP MOM,” the house lights shut off and smoke rolled across the stage. The multi-generational audience chanted “T-PAIN! T-PAIN!” as the singer sauntered up to the microphone with a blindingly white jacket billowing around him a-la “Beyoncé’s hair in the wind machine.”
T-Pain flashed a baring glimpse of his teeth before whipping back his hood and launching into a soulful rendition of “Ringleader Man.” The crowd went wild as the artist popped and locked between verses.
The slicked black floors, red velvet curtains and somewhat tacky crown molding of the Royale added to the sweet-16-fever-dream feeling of the whole experience. The ridiculousness of it all made the crowd feel even more carefree and loose when dance club hits such as “Cyclone” and “Booty Wurk (One Cheek At a Time)” blasted from the speakers.
The musician definitely wanted to satisfy everyone’s craving for the nostalgic, simpler times when every other song on the radio featured T-Pain.
“Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” came surprisingly early in the set, but the energy that carried throughout the performance proved T-Pain didn’t need to save such a banger for last.
The artist shed his coat to reveal a simple black t-shirt that read “GOAT TALK” as the show started to heat up.
The autotune on the microphone was switched on and off as T-Pain jumped between his summertime hit singles and his more acoustic work. His impressive pipes shined through the intense backbeats and left the audience cheering with a perfectly joyful kind of appraisal.
Even more mind-blowing were T-Pain’s shockingly spectacular dance moves. He owned the stage as he moonwalked about and showed off his outrageously smooth krumping skills.
Pure energy exploded from his body and voice, and the audience certainly reciprocated the fiery passion as they screamed along to the choruses of his features on universally recognized bops such as “Two Step,” “Blame It” and Flo Rida’s “Low.”
The artist and his DJ, who seemed to be his best friend, divided the crowd into three sections to play a fun call-and-response game that got everyone screaming at the top of their lungs if they weren’t already.
A series of increasingly earth-shattering “oh yeahs” were exchanged until the recognizable voice of Kanye rattled the room as “Good Life” began to play. T-Pain performed his verse with as much grandiose conceit as the original recording. Kanye would have been proud to hear it.
The show took yet another unexpected turn when T-Pain left the stage for a brief moment only to return in a multi-colored, LED lit fur coat to perform an abridged compilation of his “Masked Singer” performances.
Video clips of him in his monster costume dancing in random locations played behind him and added a humorous element to the show.
Equipped with his eye-catching getup and an autotune-free mic, T-Pain let his raw voice tear through his cover of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” and his now viral chilling rendition of Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me.”
There was never a single dull moment throughout T-Pain’s entire set, especially when his classics, “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper)” and “Bartender” had every 20 and 30-something-year-old bouncing around like they were reliving the glory days of the early 2000s.
T-Pain commanded the room with his undeniably compelling presence. He even had everyone’s attention when he calmed things down with his heart-wrenching performance of “5 O’Clock.”
These more soulful songs sans autotune were the standouts of the night and solidified T-Pain as a true vocal powerhouse. Everyone’s hands went up and stayed there when “All I Do is Win” began to wind down the show.
Images of T-Pain receiving Grammys among his famous collaborators flashed across the screen behind the DJ booth — a true testament to T-Pain’s personal brand of highlighting over-the-top, flashy moments in his life.
The artist brought so much personality to the stage with him and left everyone floored by the not-so-casual flexing of his many talents.
It can no longer be denied that T-Pain is a force to be reckoned with, and he has the vocal chops to prove it whether he’s wearing a mask or not.
