It may come as a surprise that as of this year, rapper T-Pain has already been on Twitch for five years. Ever since his first stream playing DOOM, the rapper has been growing rapidly on Twitch by combining his unique talent for music with his insatiable passion for gaming. While T-Pain still considers himself a small streamer, he has managed to accrue almost 600, 000 followers on the platform, and his viewership continues to grow daily. When viewed in the light of streamers like xQc or TimTheTatman, T-Pain's streams may seem relatively small.
That being said, his unique blend of music, gaming, and fan interaction on Twitch is not necessarily tailored for massive appeal. T-Pain's broadcasts tend to be so uniquely T-Pain that it would be nearly impossible for any other channel to replicate. It's all part of his charm, but it's also his downfall against truly large viewership. In fact, the spontaneous, unplanned nature of his streams has often led fans to wonder exactly what the rapper plays when he is gaming since many of his streams naturally incline toward long back-and-forths with viewers or, his first love, creating beats for fans.
T-Pain on Twitch: Shooting and Drifting
It's no coincidence that T-Pain's humble streaming beginnings started with 2016's DOOM. Since then, while T-Pain occasionally dabbles in other genres, he consistently returns to first-person shooters as his primary gaming choice. Recently, T-Pain has been putting a lot of hours into Call of Duty: Warzone but he also occasionally launches into Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
While he's far from the most skilled streamer out there, fans find his carefree, positive broadcasts are a refreshing change from the often rage-laden gameplay of more serious players. Despite placing Bronze in Overwatch and sitting at a similar skill level in other shooters, T-Pain can turn it on when the chips are down. Just last month, when he found himself on the opposite end of a deplorable racist tirade in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, T-Pain shifted into another gear and wiped the entire racist team.
Beyond first-person shooters, T-Pain enjoys playing racing games in the form of Assetto Corsa or the enormously popular Forza Horizon 4. When it comes to these games, T-Pain has a setup that would put most gamers to shame. Not only does he play them with a wheel controller and pedals, but he has a gaming chair rigged to simulate the movement of his driving. For Assetto Corsa, he also dons a full VR headset which, when combined with the rest of his setup, entirely simulates the act of driving. In addition to his racing game obsession, T-Pain has also pursued drifting as a hobby in real life, ripping donuts and tearing up track whenever he gets the time.
T-Pain: Nothing Beats Beats
It's nearly impossible to tune in to a stream and not find the rapper showing off his musical talents. While Twitch has become somewhat notorious for its strict DMCA issues that constantly hits content creators with strikes, T-Pain has gone live several times to share royalty-free beats with his fans. He tends to blend music into most of his broadcasts as either a prelude to his gaming or as sort of a cool down after the action.
Regardless, whatever T-Pain lacks in FPS ability, he more than makes up for with his musical talents. When he truly gets going, viewers are privy to a masterclass in beat-making and production that very few streamers could possibly deliver. To this end, he employs a number of different programs including Avid's Pro Tools, Kontakt 6 as a sampler, and plenty of other programs. So, while he may not be the quickest on the sticks, T-Pain is still unique because he is a variety streamer who is inarguably at the top of the class when it comes to musical broadcasts.