T-Pain’s Road to Wiscansin Tour culminated in the inaugural Wiscansin Fest at the Rave’s Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, Wisconson on Saturday (June 11).
The Tallahassee, Florida native — who famously rhymed “mansion” with “Wisconsin” on 2008’s “Can’t Believe It” – curated an almost nine-hour lineup that boasted performances from Lil Jon, Juvenile, Yung Bleu, K Camp, O.T. Genasis and more across three stages.
But one of the highlights of the night came from the Nappy Boy boss himself, who performed his unreleased “Death of Auto-Tune” remix that he recorded years ago in response to JAY-Z’s famous 2009 critique of the voice-altering technology popularized by himself.
The long-dormant track features a slightly reworked version of Hov’s original beat — produced by No I.D. — and plenty of tough-talking from Teddy Pain.
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“They tried to get rid of me, now their knees hurt/Shook! Who say they tryna brawl with Tylenol?/You know you missed me, you ain’t fucking with them guys at all/Foot in the dope crack, they say they need mo’ crack/They asking for pain relief so I guess the boy’s back,” he raps.
He adds, “It gets worse with time/All the time you spent rehearsing your line, it end up worse than mine/You thirsty for shine/Every time I spit a bar I get thirty a line/Who said they tryna bang with Teddy Pain?/I’m on everythang, that’s on everythang/I’m married to the game, get the wedding ring/I got this shit wrapped, Teddy Cellophane.”
T-Pain first revealed he recorded a “Death of Auto-Tune” remix last year, telling Drink Champs co-hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN it was going to be the intro to his next album at the time.
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“I made the record after I did a show in Vegas and everybody in the crowd was like, ‘JAY-Z killed you, bro!’” he said. “I was like, ‘All right, I’m never doing shows again!’ And it’s all, like, bros, it’s all white boys with their shirts off and shit. ‘JAY-Z, it’s the Roc, bro. Fuck you, bro!’
“I ended the show early and then I just tried to drink myself to death … I was just ready to go, man. I went in the studio and started recording the record.”
T-Pain Says He Recorded A JAY-Z Diss Song In Response To 'Death Of Auto-Tune'
However, the song never saw the light of day thanks to T-Pain’s management team stepping in. “I don’t even think I finished it,” he continued. “Because my manager came into the booth while I was doing it and it was like, ‘Let’s just stop. All right, now you’re doing too much.’”
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On a lighter note, T-Pain was also honored with his own day in the state of Wisconsin during Saturday’s Wiscansin Fest. The rappa-turnt-sanga struggled to hold back the tears as he was surprised onstage by state representative Kalan Haywood with a proclamation recognizing June 11 as “T-Pain Day.”
“Thank you @cityofmilwaukee and the entire state of Wisconsin for this incredible honor,” he wrote on Instagram.
