This Week On Billboard: T-Pain f. Young Joc - Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin')

This Week On Billboard is where I unabashedly critique the current no. 1 hit on Billboard.com, the major yardstick for what's "hot" in music today. In order to simplify the review for those who don't want to read the whole article, each song is given a "!" rating, in which the finest grabs five of them.

Weeks in No. 1: 1

Weeks in Chart: 12

From the upcoming Epiphany Long LP

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Ever since Cher dropped "Believe" a decade ago, the autotune has become a musical punchline. The more shrewd use of the autotune in pop music has been to hide the vocalist's weak spots. However, T-Pain's flagrant use of it is sort of like breaking bad news to someone with a sarcastic tone so that it's not actually taken seriously. What T-Pain is actually saying here is "sure, i can't sing in tune most of the time, but I'm using the autotune in all of my singles and guest spots so you'd think it's my schtick".

Regardless of T-Pain's hoarseness, the melody is passable. The beat is effective snap music and Young Joc holds his own. This single would've worked better if the title read "Young Joc featuring T-Pain", so that the duration of their contributions is inverted.