T-Pain - Oblivion

Pitchfork 67

T-Pain’s first studio album in six years cashes in on the good graces he’s received in the interim, but also retreads vastly familiar territory that is more fun than illuminating.

The Guardian 20

(Nappy Boy/RCA)

It’s been 30 years since LL Cool J was widely side-eyed for writing hip-hop’s first pop crossover ballad, I Need Love. Yet its gauche, wordy earnestness is Shelleyan compared to T-Pain’s feeble seduction raps. Slack lyrics can work with a little leavening humour, but when your main feature is the loathsome assaulter Chris Brown you need to do better than threatening your “bitch” that your technique is so good “the neighbours gon’ think I’m a wifebeater” (Pu$$y on the Phone). Except for the failed jazz ’n’ bass experiment May I, the music is just as tasteless and tired, the sound of a migraine struggling to maintain an erection.