T-Pain Dumps ‘Auto-Tune’ App, Then Sues for Good Measure

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Rapper T-Pain made his name through the use of auto-tune. You know, the effect where a voice is pitch-corrected—or, in many cases, simply manipulated—during the recording and production process; think Cher in “Believe.” T-Pain popularized the effect the point that there’s even an official auto-tune app called “I Am T-Pain.”

But now he’s decided to make a break from the relationship and is suing to make sure everyone knows he’s serious. T-Pain has filed suit against Antares Technologies, the creators of auto-tune, in order to make them stop using his name and likeness to promote the product.

The reason for this isn’t that Pain has decided to concentrate on more natural sounding vocals, however. Instead, he’s partnered with a new company called Izotope to launch a competing product called “The T-Pain Effect.” Somehow, I can see a countersuit in T-Pain’s future…

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Graeme McMillan is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @Graemem or on Facebook at Facebook/Graeme.McMillan. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.