It's okay.

Really, it is. I can hold your hand if you want, you know, to ease the moment. You can listen to T-Pain, you’re old enough. You won’t have nightmares, I swear. Just take a deep breathe, relax your muscles. Shake all those preconceived notions out of your head. And no, those orange dreads are not appendages. Silly, just silly. Please, delve into what you would normally write off.

That was me a month ago. I braced myself, my ears held on for dear life, as T-Pain started dripping from the speakers. T-Pain? ‘I am gay’ was the first thought in my mind. As a 20 year old male my sexuality came into question. No. I quickly diverted the attention to another question: Am I insane? Maybe. Yet I ended those pensive moments with a chartered thrill ride into an unknown.

I didn’t mind T-Pain when he released Rappa Ternt Sanga. He was a novelty or one of those babies that you see that’s not cute. When “Buy You a Drink” came out my willingness for Rappers turned Singers shuttered. And when I’d heard his next single was “Bartender” hope for decency vanished.

I classified T-Pain, I put him in a box, before I actually gave him a listen. I hereby sincerely apologize to Faheem Najm. While T-Pain week sounds like a joke—it surely would be a fine one, the finest one—it is in all seriousness. I mean T-Pain is no Nas (who is, right?) so you have to take his music with a grain of salt. Just… shutdafuckup. It’s just when you have epiphanies in life, and you don’t have many, you really feel like sharing it.