The Funny Reason T-Pain Looks Forward to Pooping Everywhere He Travels
The hip-hop star shares his favorite airplane memory, on-the-go essentials, and his ultimate travel goal (and yes, it involves poop)
For years, T-Pain was known as “the autotune guy”—and for pretty good reason. With his 2000s hits like “Buy U a Drank” and “Bartender,” the legendary rapper helped popularize a style of music that heavily relies on the tool. It also masked the fact that he’s actually a damn good singer.
In 2014, a Tiny Desk performance reintroduced the world to T-Pain as someone who very much can sing without the help of a computer—an identity that was again solidified when he won The Masked Singer in 2019. Since then, Pain has been showing off his vocal chops every chance he can get, from releasing a covers album to playing major festivals across the world.
Most recently, T-Pain partnered with The General Insurance and Shaq for a new commercial that let Shaq be “the autotune guy” instead. Next on his agenda: the hip-hop legend is hitting the road this summer on the TP20 Tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his debut album, Rappa Trent Sanga.
In the middle of another successful festival season, T-Pain spoke with associate editor Annie Harrigan about his favorite travel memories, his travel essentials, and the one thing he likes to do in every place that he visits.
Thrillist: What’s your favorite travel memory?
T-Pain: I get to go to a lot of cool places all the time. Usually I’m working when we get there, but it's good to see everybody else having a great vacation. We just kind of provide the party that they're going to. It's nice to have something different happen every now and then. So my favorite travel memory is when I got to be on a plane when it got hit by lightning. That was pretty different. I guess it wasn't a great memory, but it’s my favorite one because it's an experience you want to have. Well, you don't want to have it, but it happened. And I'm able to tell that story right now, so that's cool.
What do they do in that situation? Do they land the plane?
T-Pain: They just keep going. I think the hull is made for that. It was just cool to see the whole plane just shut down for a few seconds and then get back to going. Yeah, it’s a cool story to tell at parties.
What are your travel essentials?
I need to have a 24-key keyboard that can fit in my bag. I like to have that so I can plug it into the laptop when I have an idea, that way I can get it out of my head real quick. I like the Roli one. It's a little tiny keyboard that lights up when you hit the keys. It's very cool. It feels good. The keys actually have a little weight to them. It sparks inspiration with all the lights, and it scratches a part of my brain.
I also got to have a Meta Quest Three. I like to have that for VR games. It's also easier than taking a whole laptop for gaming or trying to carry an Xbox with you. And it's cooler. You get immersed into the game world. You get to chill out and take a break from this world.
I need car insurance that I can trust since we travel so much. We got to have that protection there. The General, they’re trying to give everybody a break. I have to have something like that around me all the time.
What are some self-care must haves you bring with you on the road?
One Shot voice drops. They’re a lozenge that I pop right before hitting the stage. It loosens up the throat and coats it. It has marshmallow in it and other yummy stuff. It just helps me get through a show much more easily. Every time I use it, I get off stage and people are like, “You were on it tonight, huh?” Then every time I don't use it, I can definitely tell the difference. So it's something I got to have.
The other thing I need are my Good Game energy shots. It's my new energy shot. I don't have a lot of energy all the time and a lot of the sets that I have to perform are super late at night. So I like to have those energy shots on me.
What is one thing you do in every place you go?
Poop. You know what? This is just a goal of mine. Once I started doing it, I was like, “Man, one day, I'm going to be able to say I pooped in every state.”