T-Pain Singing Without Autotune is Fantastic

Autotune: helping bad singers become massive pop stars for 20 years.

Or so it's commonly assumed, particularly with one of its primary exponents, Florida-born rapper T-Pain, who has made a career out of extensively using it on his voice, popularising it for many others, including Kanye West, to follow in his wake.

But it turns out that he could actually sing brilliantly all along. In the latest edition of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series and All Things Considered, he talks about his signature sound, saying, "People felt like I was using it to sound good, but I was just using it to sound different."

Watch for yourself in the clip below, where he sings, accompanied only by keyboard, versions of Buy U a Drank, Up Down and Drankin' Patna, which showcase his smooth, soulful voice - head to one minute in to hear the first song.

And below that, just for old times' sake, we've also put the video for his finest moment: guesting on The Lonely Island's magnificent On a Boat.