T-Pain has many iconic tracks to his name, but arguably, his 2008 collaboration with Lil Wayne, ‘Can’t Believe It’ is his finest, with his trademark auto-tune vocals and lyrics piercing pop culture more deeply than he has ever done elsewhere.
Speaking to MTV News, T-Pain once explained the motivations behind the hit: “[The song] is basically a perspective of not settling for what you doing. You can be doing better. Even if you think you’re at the peak of your career, you’re at the top, it’s something else you can be doing. Don’t settle into what you been pretty much forced into doing.”
However, apart from the big chorus, the most famous part of the track is the moment T-Pain – a native of Tallahassee, Florida – spits the rhyme: “Put you in the mansion, somewhere in Wiscansin (Wisconsin).” While the song sees T-Pain mention places from across the globe, this line mentioning “Wiscansin” became legendary and has associated the rapper with the midwestern state ever since. It’s since been a match made in heaven.
Famously, the relationship between T-Pain and Wisconsin has been a loving one. In 2022, the ‘Bartender’ musician was officially recognised by the state during his Road To Wiscansin tour. Giving the state a real treat, instead of performing solo when stopping there, he organised the Wiscansin Fest, which saw the likes of Lil Jon, Juvenile, Yung Bleu, K Camp, O.T. Genasis and more take to the stage.
When it was finally T-Pain’s time to perform, the state representative, Kalan Haywood, surprised him from the state office, recognising June 11th as T-Pain Day. When the rapper shared clips on social media, he could be seen tearing up as he received his plaque, thanking everyone for the support.
In a new interview with Billboard, T-Pain explained once again that he is planning to open a music school in Wisconsin to keep giving back to the state.
“I just really felt like I was Andre 3000 when I was recording that song,” he said. “That was my spirit animal that I had on me while I was recording that song.”
He continued: “Again, that fostered the era of the ‘mansion in Wiscansin’ infamous rhyme. And since then, we’ve been really able to incorporate that into everything. […] All my tours that I go on now are Wisconsin based. We have a ‘Wiscansin University.’ All the merch is ‘Wiscansin’ based. We’re actually starting a school in Wisconsin. It’s a music school.”
