Will T-Pain Butcher Black Sabbath & Sam Smith On His Covers Album?

T-Pain is preparing to release a cover album, On Top Of The Covers, packed with rock and roll and soul classics. That's right, the artist you know primarily for his use of autotune is much more than that, and this release is proof.

The seven-track album, due for release on 17 March through Nappy Boy Entertainment, will showcase T-Pain's voice minus his signature vocal effect, which he presented as the winner of the 2019 first season of The Masked Singer US.

"This covers album has been years in the making. I started recording this right after I won The Masked Singer," T-Pain revealed in a statement. "It got put on hold for a bit, but now that I’m independent, I’m able to do whatever I want to do through Nappy Boy Entertainment, and this is something I’ve felt strongly about for a long time. These songs are not what you’d expect when you hear that T-Pain is doing a covers album, and that is what I think is cool about it."

What is it about the tracklist that's unexpected? Well, T-Pain is taking on the Black Sabbath classic, War Pigs, Journey's Don't Stop Believin', Stay With Me by Sam Smith, and A Change Is Gonna Come, among others.

On Top Of The Covers will be T-Pain's first release since 2019's 1UP.

In 2014, T-Pain called out homophobia in hip-hop, claiming that he knew artists who wouldn't work with Frank Ocean when Ocean openly discussed his sexuality. 

“I think the radio's getting more gay-friendly; I don't think urban music or anything is getting more gay-friendly; if that were the case, Frank Ocean would be on a lot more songs,” he stated.

"Like he [Ocean] was on the Watch The Throne album [Jay-Z and Kanye West's collaboration record] before he came out, and then when he came out, it's like, he can't get in the studio with Jay and Kanye right now." 

On Top Of The Covers tracklist:

A Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke)
Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey)
Sharing the Night Together (Dr Hook)
Stay With Me (Sam Smith)
Tennessee Whiskey (Chris Stapleton)
That’s Life ft. NandoSTL (Frank Sinatra)
War Pigs (Black Sabbath)