T-Pain > Every MC

T-Pain is a better than your favorite rapper. There I said it. I've been waiting for years to make that statement but never had the proof, it was just a hunch. Ok, of course I’m exaggerating, but before ya'll haters do what you do best check out Teddy's new Pree Ringz mixtape where he trades in his auto-tuned verses for rap bars and try to front like dude doesn’t go in.

Truthfully Pree Ringz is better than most rap albums and I gotta applaud Pain for his effort. Listening to the tape you can hear influences from greats like Eminem and Big Pun (now I'm not saying Pain=Pun, but at least he is following a dope ass blueprint). On "Superman" the top-hat totin’ MC (yes I said MC; AND WHAT?!?) gets goofy and channels his inner Marshall when he goes, "Look up in the sky its a nigga sellin’ birds on a plane/You ain’t never heard of the Pain/I’m the new superhero of the brand new age/Brand new rims brand new Chevrolet." Then he bares his soul on "Tha Truth" when he details the real reason for his over-saturation of the game; "I do it for my kids and my kid's kids/And when I'm dead they’ll come to my grave to tell me what they kids did." But it’s on “Dig That” where T-Pain really goes in and basically tells the industry to kiss his ass ("How long you think it's gonna take before they start to respect/The blood and the tears and the sweat/And still don't forget, where they so called ideas came from/And who they call for ideas when they ain’t none." Hate if you want, but I much rather hear this than another song about your hood, or how much money you got; real talk Pain is creative as fuck. I’ve tried to convince my fellow XXL co-workers but folks like Mike D. just ain’t convinced, I give him credit though ‘cause at my urging he listened to the tape. All I‘m saying is this, Pain takes a lot of flak for what’s wrong with hip-hop these days, but the Rappa-Ternt-Sanga (ternt rapper again?!?) is talented as fuck and the T-Pain angst is severely misdirected.

Anyone not named Jay-Z, Kanye, Joe Budden, Nas, Scarface, Andre 3000 or Eminem might get their spot taken by Teddy if they’re not careful. Have at it haters! – Rob The Music Ed