By Dominic Arenas

If you combined the total number of hit songs by Timeflies, Matt and Kim, Twenty One Pilots, Cold War Kids, Andy Grammer and Grouplove, you still would not scratch the surface of T-Pain’s discography. After repeatedly choosing T-Pain in CAB’s survey of potential Spring Weekend acts, the student body’s wishes have come true. We are finally getting a black hip-hop artist for Spring Weekend.

T-Pain, aka “rapper ternt sanga” and the “Late 2000s Feature King,” is finally headlining Spring Weekend. Any and all songs that played at middle school dances, minivans and malls featured T-Pain. This man is as much as a part of childhood as Gushers, Lunchables and Fruit by the Foot. From 2006-2010, T-Pain was featured on more than 50 chart topping singles.
Name 50 songs by the headlining acts from the past five years. How many of those songs hit number one or went platinum?

The reason Auto-Tune is prevalent throughout the music industry and artists: T-Pain. Admit it, you probably had the “I am T-Pain” app, said “Wiscansin” and pushed your heads and chest like T-Pain does in his videos. His usage of Auto-Tune ushered in a wave of new sounds in hip hop. Think about any and all Kanye West albums after 808 and Heartbreaks or even Top 40 songs that rely on this quality. Many have utilized the “T-Pain Effect.”

Though T-Pain has [somewhat] retired the Auto-Tune for acoustic arrangements, the man is a respected hip-hop artist and rapper in the music industry. That is why the announcement of T-Pain headlining Spring Weekend is monumental.

Part of the astonishment stems from the fact that Fordham is a Jesuit University and T-Pain is, well, T-Pain. Though the artist has certified bangers, he (sometimes) sings about loving strippers and his routine of bringing women home. We, the Fordham student body, “can’t believe it.” Pun intended. Students and even Fordham alumni took to Twitter to voice their disbelief. Some tweets following the announcement included, “Finding out T-Pain is coming to Fordham made me forget Trump is president” and “Anyone tryna be a super senior and hit Fordham Spring Weekend for this T-Pain concert?!”

I’ve watched T-Pain before and I put his performance above the times I’ve watched Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar and Elton John. T-Pain won’t crowd surf, freestyle about Fordham or do covers. The man carries a towel in his back pocket because he exerts so much effort in each song. At one point in his set, T-Pain even stated, “You did not realize how many songs I was in, huh?” So, let us hope this is a sign that Fordham will be less stringent with performers and speakers.

I do not expect T-Pain to tone down his performance or even filter the content of his lyrics. It will be interesting to hear “I’m In Luv (With a Stripper),” “Take Your Shirt Off” and Up Down (Do This All Day)” blast throughout campus.

Another developing interest is how Fordham administration will respond. Imagine the likes of “I’m Sprung,” “Bartender” and “Booty Wurk” penetrating the walls of the Fordham University Church. As a small Jesuit University, Fordham could never get a headlining act that is currently popular and on top of the charts. We either get acts before they are famous or after their time at the top.

Though T-Pain can be categorized with the latter, his appearance this Spring Weekend is a major victory for the student body. If all goes well, hopefully it will be a win for administration too.

For years, the majority of Spring Weekend attendees have been yearning for an act they can get behind and be hyped up about. T-Pain’s performance will do just that and (hopefully) show the administration that it needs to be more lenient with future performers and speakers.

Dominic Arenas, FCRH ’18, is a digital technologies and emerging media major from San Francisco, California.