Thr33 Ringz

What’s the Story?

Apparently T-Pain has been hearing a lot of people in today's music scene calling him a leader, and the rapper/singer has fully embraced that label on his latest album -- THR33 RINGZ -- deeming himself a "ringleader" of the industry. The album takes the circus theme and runs with it: From the vintage sideshow cover art to songs like "Ringleader Man" and "Welcome to Thr33 Ringz," circus imagery abounds. That said, the majority of the songs cover topics such as hitting on women, clubbing, and hitting on more women.

Is It Any Good?

With his gangster sensibilities -- drinking, hustling, and objectifying women -- T-Pain is an R&B singer for anyone too cool to listen to real harmonies. But his reliance on electronic production and vocoder sounds calls into question his actual singing ability: Can he actually carry a tune unplugged? There's no denying that the electro-soul on the album has its own funk appeal, but the voice altering becomes monotonous at a certain point. T-Pain's "ringleader" character is somewhat clever, but that also gets old after several tracks. As does his constant bragging.

T-Pain is at his best when he sticks to what made him famous: lush club music that's easy to dance to. At least there are plenty of these tracks to groove to, from "Freeze" (which features Chris Brown, who can actually sing without electronic assistance) to "It Ain't Me" and "Can't Believe It." Although it's questionable whether T-Pain is the ringmaster of the record industry, there's little doubt that he's the ringleader of his own electronic productions.