Concert Review: T-Pain & Pitbull

T-Pain wanted to “keep it classy” at Blossom Music Center last Thursday (08.29.24) night during his opening set for Pitbull. At least, that’s what he said before singing his 2005 club hit and all-around ubiquitous banger, “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper).” That was the tone throughout the show: fun, yet on a mission to hype. That also wasn’t the only hit T-Pain sang that night. In fact, according to T-Pain himself, he had enough hits to “play until tomorrow.”

His goal was not only to hype but also to get people in the party spirit and amp them up for Pitbull. Still, he was able to steal the show and take command of the audience during his brief 45-minute set, regardless of whether the song was a complete T-Pain original or not.

Because he’s featured on so many songs, there were quite a few tunes he performed that were covers or just the part of the song where he is featured. And since he was doing hooks or his lyrics as a featured artist, the songs were brief and wove into one another quite well. It gave the show a forward momentum. He would play part of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” but only enough to get the crowd singing along, and then shift into another song, maybe one of his; maybe another featured hook. He would then do a rendition of a song like “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’),” a monster hit that entered the club scene in 2007 and hasn’t left. The crowd would rest for a brief second before he’d go into another hit like “Bartender.” It was like a playlist of T-Pain medleys.

Once known for his use of autotune, T-Pain might now be more known for the ironic fact that he has a great singing voice and just happened to come up in the era of autotune in music. To some people, he might be more known as a Twitch streamer, where he’s found a second career streaming video games. (That’s the only reason my mom knows who he is.) In fact, before the show, someone told me they saw an interview where T-Pain said he didn’t need to tour anymore because of all the money he makes from streaming. Whether that’s true or just a joke, after Thursday’s show, I could envision a world where it’s true, and T-Pain is just doing concerts for the love of being on stage. He even seemed right at home as a hype man, not afraid to lend the spotlight to another, which makes sense given his vast repertoire of features.

His command of the audience was also partially because of his dance skills and partially because of his charm. Both of these added fun layers to the show because even though he’s known for songs about strippers and “Booty Wurk,” he’s a pretty wholesome guy. (His NPR Tiny Desk performance is something to behold.) He would joke about how Pitbull was probably just showing up and backstage getting into the most skin-tight outfit he could. Or he would ask how all these people got into his apartment, probably a self-jab at his internet popularity. And the hype thoroughly worked. The crowd ate it up. Speaking of the crowd, they skewed a lot younger than I was expecting from artists who had most of their hits 10-15 years ago, likely another result of the online fame.

Pitbull, not to be outdone, gave a set full of party anthems and hits as well. Blending his style of Latin music and hip-hop, he spent the night playing to his strengths: anthems and club songs. He would also play samples or parts of songs by older bands like Guns n’Roses, which worked well after T-Pain’s set.

His stage production was expansive, especially compared to T-Pain and a single DJ. Pitbull had musicians with horns, keyboards, drums, guitars, and percussion. He also had backup dancers. The stage show itself matched the energy of the set as well. When he would do songs like “Gasolina,” originally by Daddy Yankee but later remixed and featuring Pitbull, flames were lighting up the screen behind him. Early in the performance, the screen made it seem like he was singing from the back of a boat bobbing in the water. But Pitbull didn’t need to rely on the dancers and production to perform for him. He had the audience in the palm of his hand from the beginning, running back and forth across the stage, following the dancers, strutting up and down the steps, and dancing the entire time. It was pretty impressive, especially considering his outfit even if it wasn’t as skin-tight as T-Pain had suggested).

He made sure the crowd was engaged, too. At one point, he held an impromptu Spanish lesson, with a call and response that started simply “Si, Si,” and “No, No.” After that, he challenged them with “Yo no quiero agua. Yo quiero bebida,” which, of course, translates to, “I don’t want water. I want a drink.” And, judging by the fun the crowd was having, it was a valuable phrase for the evening. The real purpose was to get them to help sing the chorus to “Maldito Alcohol.” So, it was a win-win.

Between the two acts, the night was packed with hits and energy. The crowd came looking for a party atmosphere. Both performers knew their assignments and delivered a bit of the club scene to Blossom.