The Phoenix Network:
 
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 

T-Pain | Thr33 Ringz

Jive (2008)
By MIKAEL WOOD  |  November 18, 2008
3.0 3.0 Stars

TPaininside.jpg

T-Pain's third studio album won't surprise fans of the Tallahassee-based hip-hop maestro: if you've heard any of his previous hits — or any of his numerous productions for acts including Chris Brown, Flo Rida, and Lil Mama — you'll instantly recognize the familiar AutoTune jams here.

Repetition, though, is the prerogative of the unique — especially when the truly unique is also the highly lucrative. So if Thr33 Ringz fails to shock, consider also that it fails to disappoint. In fact, it might contain T-Pain's single finest accomplishment to date: "Can't Believe It," a mesmerizing collaboration with Lil Wayne in which Pain manages to rhyme "put you in a mansion" with "somewhere in Wisconsin," and Wayne succeeds in sounding even more like an alien than he does on Tha Carter III. (According to the Internet, these two are reportedly at work on a joint album under the handle T-Wayne.)

Other highlights exist, but you don't need me to tell you about them — the radio will be taking care of that for the next year or so.

Related: Billboard's Rap Songs chart, 2008 Listravaganza Part 2, From ’Ye to mixtapes, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Hip-Hop and Rap, Music,  More more >
| More

[ 05/27 ]   "A Natural Order," photographs by Lucas Foglia  @ David Winton Bell Gallery
[ 05/27 ]   George Orwell's 1984, adapted by Nick Lane  @ Gamm Theatre
[ 05/27 ]   "2012 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition"  @ Rhode Island Convention Center
ARTICLES BY MIKAEL WOOD
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS | FURTHER  |  July 07, 2010
    Astralwerks (2010)
  •   DEVO | SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY  |  July 01, 2010
    Given the theory of de-evolution these Ohio brainiacs began expounding more than 30 years ago, it makes a sad kind of sense that Devo's first album since 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps offers such a charmless, base-level version of the band's synth-addled new wave.
  •   TAIO CRUZ | ROKSTARR  |  June 24, 2010
    When Taio Cruz sings, "I can't live without you," in "Take Me Back," pop-song conventions tell us he's referring to a lover.
  •   THE FUTUREHEADS | THE CHAOS  |  June 16, 2010
    "I wish that I could stop the noise," sings Barry Hyde not long into The Chaos . It sure doesn't seem that way.
  •   BETTYE LAVETTE | INTERPRETATIONS: THE BRITISH ROCK SONGBOOK  |  June 01, 2010
    Bettye LaVette’s previous two albums had titles that required a little digging to unpack.

 See all articles by: MIKAEL WOOD



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2012 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group