The singer, rapper, and songwriter who has won six Grammy Awards sang “I’m T-Pain/You Know Me” on his first big hit, “Buy U a Drank,” in 2007. But are you sure? Many hip-hop artists were trendy when they first came out in the mid-2000s, but their fame decreased as time went on and music changed. Only T-Pain is putting together an unexpected second act as the owner of a professional drift squad, using his fame, money, and a lot of skill. He hopes to one day race against the best Formula D cars. You’re not alone in wondering how smoking tires relates to 7x platinum tunes. T-Pain, whose real name is Faheem Rashad Najm, has always liked cars, but he didn’t realize he would become so obsessed with them until he took a drifting class with Chelsea DeNofa five years ago and became utterly hooked on driving sideways. T-Pain puts all of himself into learning how to drift, so it’s not a sport for him. And he’s getting better. But when he tried to share his newfound excitement with his friends, he noticed something: since they were Black, they felt very out of place at the track. To use a phrase that is both cliche and trendy, I did not observe a great deal of openness in the sport itself. Do you understand? He informed me about it. I asked a lot of my friends who ride standard track since they are always down to come hang out with me, ride, and do other activities like that. I’m curious as to why you don’t go through with it. As a form of response, they often remark something along the lines of “We don’t feel like we’re invited.” It isn’t a good place to be. We don’t go to NASCAR races or other events for the same reason. But we should be more sought after. It’s better than NASCAR, but it’s still very…one-sided. He and Hertrech Eugene Jr. of the Hoonigans have started their drifting team called Nappy Boy Automotive. They are hoping to win over a large number of new admirers as well as former ones. We don’t want to make a Black drift team, after all. We don’t do things like that. We’re taking anyone who might not be brave enough to go to the track alone. T-Pain’s ultimate goal is to participate in Formula Drift. Still, it only takes a minute of talking to him to find out that his passion is mixing with the automotive world—hanging out at local tracks, meeting new people, and teaching kids how to do donuts. T-Pain recently did some long-overdue maintenance on his 1994 Honda Accord as part of a clever campaign by eBay Motors and our friends at Donut Media to promote the site’s new Guaranteed Fit verification program, which aims to make it clear which parts will fit your car as you browse. T-Pain told us about his new record, “Drifting,” and why you shouldn’t always look to YouTube for hard advice. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, but when I started drifting during my first practice with Chelsea DeNofa, I told him I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift. My experience behind the wheel of a vehicle with a manual transmission was limited. So, the journey became about learning how to do it, how to change it while drifting, and when to do it. I couldn’t even drive a car with a manual transmission down the street, let alone sideways up a hill at 60 mph. It was wonderful. It worked out great.
