Tallahassee’s T-Pain first made it big two years ago with crossover hits “I’m Sprung” and “I’m In Love With A Stripper” off of his Jive Records debut, Rappa Ternt Sanga (yes, that is spelled “correctly”). Utilizing a “talk box” with his vocals, T-Pain’s style has been compared to the late Roger Troutman. With two hit singles under hit belt, most of the industry was ready to write him off as a two-hit wonder, but over the last year, his fanbase has grown considerably. Thanks to a now classic appearance on E-40′s “U and Dat”, as well as a pair of hit singles from his new #1 on the Billboard charts album, Epiphany, perhaps T-Pain is here to stay. 

      Currently the go-to-guy for remixes, T-Pain has been showing up all over new versions of your favorite club hits, whether it’s R. Kelly’s “I’m A Flirt”, Huey’s “Pop Lock and Drop It”, or Crime Mob’s “2 Step”. Not exactly brain food by any means, but Pain’s signature style has added the right ingredients to these otherwise disposable ringtone anthems. He’s also recorded his biggest solo song to date, “Buy You A Drank (Shawty Snappin’)”, an undeniably cool R&B ballad, and has followed it up with a duet with Akon on the catchy “Bartender”. But does the rest of Epiphany hold up? 

      Not so much. While he may woo you with his infectious singles and flavorful hooks, this album lacks substance and style. It begins with a homage to 2Pac’s “California Love”, called “Tallahassee Love”, where Pain sings about his hometown in the key of Roger. Then, the obviously Cee-Lo written / produced “Church” draws heavy influence from his recent Gnarls Barkley trip, but truthfully would have come off a little better if performed by Mr. Green himself. “Show You How” is a decent summertime-with-the-top-down jam, that should have the teenyboppers singing right along. 

     But there’s another side of T-Pain that rears its head on Epiphany. You can’t help but cringe at the visuals presented on “69″, where T-Pain and fellow sanga J-Lyriq croon together “She was suckin’ on meeeeeee / and I was lickin’ on yoooou”. Ugh. The same can be said for the cheesy “Yo Stomach”, where Pain he declares “It’s the reason that I’m singin’ this soooong / cuz I don’t got nothin’ else to bust a nut ooooon.” As if there weren’t enough overly descriptive songs about fucking on the album, “Back Seat Action” is also included, but fares a little better than the previous two. 

     It’s still a bit unclear what the actual “epiphany” T-Pain was, in regards to this album, but he does do some soul searching from time to time. The dreary “Suicide” is a bit of a wake-up call, where Pain finds himself in a hypothetical situation of acquiring H.I.V. from all of the sixty-nining and back seat action he’s been doing. He attempts to pull on the heartstrings on songs like “Time Machine”, “Right Hand”, and “Sounds Bad”, but you are almost too disgusted with his character to even care. 

     All in all, T-Pain’s got what it takes to pen a hit record, but you can add Epiphany to the pile of disposable hip-hop and R&B records this industry has been shitting out lately. Sure, he might sell a few million ringtones, churn out a few more hits, and heat up a couple of remixes, but at the end of the day, Epiphany is more like an afterthought.