Billboard cover star singer-songwriter T-Pain shares the stories behind some of his biggest hits “Buy U a Drank,” “Bartender,” “I’m Sprung” and “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper),” to his iconic features with Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — (“Good Life”), Flo Rida (“Low”), DJ Khaled (“All I Do Is Win”), Chris Brown (“Kiss Kiss”) and Lil Wayne (“Got Money”).

T-Pain:
This is the Hot 100, this is everybody. These are the best 100 songs. That was my first time releasing anything at all, you know, on a national level. Oh my god, what a world that opened up to me. You know what I mean? Like, I didn’t know what was going to transpire after that. I didn’t know how to deal with what was coming back or anything like that. I barely knew who I was myself, but I think I was just a kid — just a kid that didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t know where he wanted to go, you know, just wanting one car at that time. I was fine with that. Until they gave me that first check. Holy s–t, that first check was out of control! S–t! Oh, yeah, that one car theory went out the window right away.

But having it break in at 100. I mean, that I was fine. I was good with that. And you know, a lot of people would see that, and they’d say, “Well, it’s nowhere near No. 1.” But at the time, that’s my highest charting record. Like I’m, I’m seen with the best 100 songs in this whole category. This is it. This is the Hot 100. This is everybody all at the same time. This ain’t hip-hop, this ain’t R&B, this ain’t adult contemporary, this ain’t Latin, this ain’t nothing. This is everybody. This ain’t country.

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