"I Am T-Pain" Auto-Tune and Recording App Comes to iPhone

T-Pain knows most people think two things when they hear his name: "I have top hats and there's Auto-Tune," he tells Rolling Stone. He opted to turn the second signature into a new iPhone application developed with Smule. The "I Am T-Pain" app costs $2.99 and lets users transform their own voice into Auto-Tuned vocals, record tracks and stream them to Facebook or MySpace and create their own songs, Jay-Z be damned: "I mean most of the greatest rappers are singing now," he says. Click above to watch Soulja Boy, Keri Hilson and Akon getting their own first looks at the app (we've got a brief demo after the jump, too).

"The same thing I use in the studio, that's gonna be on the phone," T-Pain says of Dr. Andy Hildebrand's studio technology, briefly exploring the complexities of Auto-Tune software: "I don't know how, but Dr. Andy uses the same math and the same procedure they use for oil digging." There's more info on the app available at the iTunes store.

Ironically, Rolling Stone dreamed up this very app when we counted down Dream iPhone Applications in February (we also recommended a Kanye Text Converter, A Little Bit Longer (count down the days until Nick Jonas is legal), Bret Michaels' iPhone M.D. (diagnose your rash instantly).

"In two years people are gonna be performing onstage with the iPhone," T-Pain promises. " 'Cause I got so many ideas that we can just keep upgradin', upgradin', and upgradin'."

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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