T-Pain: Thr33 Ringz

Who could have guessed that a horndog

wannabe rapper turned gimmicky robo-singer who looks like the dreadlocked alien

from The Predator would prove to be the most influential hip-hop musician of the

past five years It's impossible to listen to Top 40 radio without being

inundated with T-Pain's computerized crooning, not to mention his acolytes Lil

Wayne and Kanye West. This is the tacky, superficial age of T-Pain, hip-hop's

poet laureate of closing-time hookups and strip-club crushes. Success has only

emboldened Auto-Tune's best friend, as evidenced by the ridiculous pop-up

packaging of the deluxe edition of Thr33 Ringz, which comes

complete with a mini-poster crowing "The industry is my circus."

The industry is also T-Pain's bitch, and on Ringz, he seems

hell-bent on setting a new standard for pop-music shamelessness, comparing

himself to K-Fed, sorta-rhyming "mansion" with "Wisconsin," perversely/inexplicably

stealing the chorus of the AOR sleeping pill "Change The World," anointing

himself "the sex police," and crankily boasting, "I don't need your sex, I'll

masturbate."

Like kindred spirit R. Kelly, T-Pain

is at his best when he's at his worst, though his mentor Akon scores Ringz' cheesiest

line when he vows to "turn every bullet into a Hershey's Kiss / and we can eat

away our fears." T-Pain is a funny guy, sometimes intentionally so. "Chopped

And Screwed" is "The Breaks" for the digital age, "Freeze" begs to be the

soundtrack to a training montage in a cheesy dance film, and the agreeably

grouchy "Therapy" features a lively verse from Kanye West. Ringz won't convert

any non-believers, but for fans (auto) tuned into Pain's gleefully synthetic,

excessive wavelength, he continues to deliver the guiltiest of pleasures.