“I’m a robot, I don’t need no sleep.” Teddy Pain croons the facts of life on the new Classixx single. You should already know the timeline. That sad robot motherboard appropriated by Kanye, Cudi, Future and automaton tragedy, Travi$ Scott, first came from the man whose full name stands for Tallahassee Pain.
Faheem Najm has endured more tribulations than most know. He escaped panhandle poverty by way of Akon, who signed the teen prodigy to his Konvict Muzik imprint. His singles from that first wave stand the test of time because they are not governed by any sort of planned obsolescence. He wrote and produced all of them. They are as melodic and infectious as anything to come from Tin Pan Alley, The Brill Building, or the Hotline Bling Call Center where Drake’s ghostwriters write, toil, and sew OVO owl sweatshirts for $1.50 a day. What a time to avoid silly and outdated child labor laws.
Over the last year, T-Pain’s comeback has reminded us why it’s ridiculous to have let the jokes slide in the first place. If Jay Z really killed auto-tune, there would be no Nayvadius, no Kevin Gates, no Ca$h Out, no more three-ring lunacy from the man who wore a top hat better than anyone since Gatsby.
The new single is essentially perfect because Classixx operate at a similar nexus. They’re taking old forms to make new pop. The beat is shiny and balearic with a scarcely veiled undercurrent of sadness. T-Pain uses it to list a series of Superman feats. He can breathe underwater, disappear in the haze, sing like a wounded robot angel, recover from Kanye’s most savage attacks. There’s nothing we can do about it. Nothing we can say to him. It offers the invincibility of the best pop, the sense that no obstacle is insurmountable, no off switch in sight.
