Meet T-Pain: 3D Printing Influencer

Whereas imprisoned music mogul P. Diddy had red rooms and “freak-offs” of baby oil-fueled debauchery, another long-time rap artist has a different kind of room. King of Autotune T-Pain has a 3D printing room. T-Pain chose dragons and PLA over excess and depravity. T-Pain, whose encouraging words could be heard jumping into many songs through his signature “hoots,” graced hits like Flo Rida’s Low, Lil Wayne’s Got Money, and Jamie Foxx’s Blame It. T-Pain even autotuned a hoot in DJ Khaled’s All I Do Is Win, which is remarkable since DJ Khaled is primarily known for shouting his own name or “we the best” in other people’s songs, reportedly doing so in over 100 different tracks.

T-Pain’s own hits such as Buy U a Drank, I’m Sprung, and I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper) established him as a significant star in the 2000s. Originally debuting as part of the Nappy Headz, T-Pain, before I’m Sprung, hit 8 on the Billboard charts in 2005. Fame, collaborations, and hit albums followed. His liberal use of autotune turned his voice into a half-synthesized vocal element and was widely criticized. Usher, Jay Z, and others bemoaned the use of autotune as artificial and made tracks critical of the practice, which swept through popular music at the time. In 2014, The New Yorker wrote that, “in 2011, he had come to be seen as an uncool novelty act—a goofy-looking dork who rode to fame with a production gimmick that not only sounded corny but concealed his true lack of singing ability.” Subsequently, the “apparent collapse of his career sent T-Pain, now twenty-eight years old, into a depression that left him unmotivated to make any more music.”

Vindication came through an NPR Tiny Desk concert, which laid bare that, shockingly, T-Pain had a very deep, expressive, raspy voice—in a good way, with real texture. Watch the concert if you’re only familiar with the gold grillz party song “T-Pain,” because it’s genuinely surprising. Later on, he made a startling appearance on The Masked Singer in 2019; contestants guessed  Hootie, Ceelo Green, Jamie Foxx, Tyrese, and Michael Vic. T-Pain said, once he was revealed, that “I didn’t have a chance to come into the game with my natural voice ” and that he loved his dogs.

Later, he released more serious albums and spent two years in Nashville, where he wrote songs for Luke Bryan and Dallas Davidson. T-Pain is also involved with video games, doing some work on GTA 6 and streaming on Twitch.

Now T-Pain has revealed that he has a 3D printing room. On Instagram, the singer showed off a room. He gives a shout-out to Polymaker, CookieCAD, Micro Center, and others before showing his Elegoo Storm Giga, which he uses to print body kit panels. He will later showcase some nine- or 14-day prints on that machine. That room is impressive because, in addition to housing the big printer, it also has a dedicated post-processing area. He then shows off another room with two H2Ds, five H2Cs, and five H2Ss. He doesn’t use vat polymerization units because of safety concerns.

Previously, he also 3D printed a basketball for a DraftKings promo.

In more detail, he shows how he’s outfitting his 3D printing basement at Micro Center. There, he says that he uses Inland filament and picks up a CMYK pack for lithophanes. He mostly uses Bambu Lab printers, and he’s made mounts for the AMS’s to fit them in his cabinet. In the video, we also see him pick up a Creality Sermocon scanner.

T-Pain mostly makes car parts for his car collection, which includes a lot of modded vehicles. He also makes custom vinyl-like toys to showcase during live streams. During a tour of his very extensive basement, he shows off his printers, but also a complete club-like room, extensive gaming facilities, and much more.

Now, first off, kudos to Polymaker, who gave T-Pain filament, and Micro Center, who sent him on a shopping spree. This is great engagement in today’s influencer world. T-Pain is known and somehow much more sympathetic than other celebrities. It helps that he’s kind of famous and has had dramatic shifts in fortune, of course. T-Pain’s current phase as a singer, songwriter, game voice actor, Twitch streamer, car nut, and builder of cool basements is interesting. It’s a nice change to see a baller-house, kind-of MTV Cribs setup, but a very nerdy one. It’s great to see him look to 3D printing and beyond to complement his other hobbies. I think sponsorship-wise this is a great play. T-Pain can bring in new people interested in gaming, cosplay, or cars that we couldn’t reach on our own. I’m not sure how deep T-Pain’s interest in 3D printing is. For now, he does seem very interested and genuinely is using the technology.

There are videos of him assembling printers, working on them, and playing with prints. He seems to be learning and curious about what else he can do with the technology. It’s great to see him take the tape off printers, watch assembly videos, and work his way through the hobby as we all have. In the past, when will.i.am was the Chief Creative Officer of 3D Systems, remember that? That was surreal, but it also felt fake and useless. By comparison, this feels real. In the video above, taken a year ago, we see T-Pain installing a Bambu printer, setting up the WiFi, calibrating his printer, and printing benchies. He’s putting in the time.

I came in wanting to filet him, really, and thinking this was some ridiculous celeb crossover event. But after seeing the world and life that T-Pain is building for himself by extending his celebrity, I don’t think that anymore. Instead, I think 3D printing is worthwhile for T-Pain, and T-Pain is worthwhile for 3D printing. I can really see how his exploration of 3D printing may lead more users to take it up as a pastime or business.