Hip-hop icon T-Pain has entered into a content partnership with Twitch, which kicks off tonight with an exclusive listening party featuring the debut of his new single, “I’m Cool With That.”
T-Pain’s livestreamed listening party is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, Oct. 28, on his Twitch channel (twitch.tv/tpain). The event will include the premiere of “I’m Cool With That,” a track he produced in collaboration with the Twitch community that will become part of the ”Powered by T-Pain” Soundtrack by Twitch playlist. In addition, under the new partnership, T-Pain will work with Twitch on other content for the platform, including monthly “Post Ya Song” and “Post Ya Beat” reviews from community producers on his channel.
“This partnership means that I have been seen,” T-Pain said in a statement. “With so little representation on the service previously, the fact that Twitch came to me means that they actually see our community and understand the value of our contribution to the streaming world.”
T-Pain said he’s been hosting beat battles and collaborative sessions for years on Twitch, and that “I’m Cool With That” is the result of some of those efforts. The new track also was the first song “created and released with my community, and I hope this is just the start of a journey Twitch and I are about to go on to uplift, and strengthen the music community on Twitch,” T-Pain said.
The collab with T-Pain is part of Amazon-owned Twitch’s efforts to continue expanding beyond its gaming roots, specifically with a focus on music creators. T-Pain is an active Twitch streamer himself, having joined the platform six years ago. He has 765,000 followers on the service.
The partnership also comes as Twitch has made progress in working to resolve its differences with the music industry, which has accused the platform of using unlicensed tracks. Last month, the National Music Publishers’ Association and Twitch announced an agreement to work together “to build productive partnerships between the service and music publishers.”
“Twitch has always been a creator-centric service, and we are consistently pioneering new ways in which musicians can live off their art,” said Tracy Chan, Twitch VP and head of music. “T-Pain is a shining example of a Twitch creator who is leveraging his community to curate his sound and give back — and he is inspiring other creators of all levels to do the same.”
T-Pain (aka Faheem Rasheed Najm) is known for popularizing the use of Auto-Tune in club hits from the 2000s, like “Buy U a Drank” and “Bartender.” The two-time Grammy winner was crowned the winner of Season 1 of “The Masked Singer” competition show on Fox in 2019. He also hosted two seasons of “T-Pain’s School of Business,” a docuseries on Fuse in which he showcased young entrepreneurs and startups across the country.
