The Tragic Real-Life Story Of T-Pain

The following article references mental health issues and domestic abuse.

T-Pain has had his share of ups and downs, both in his family life and in his work life. After becoming a household name thanks to his unique use of Auto-Tune on smash hits like 2007's "Buy U A Drank," his love of the pitch-fixing technology began to work against him. Fellow celebs, including Jay-Z (who's made quite a few A-list enemies over the years), began to openly mock him, pushing him to question his whole career. So when his comedy track with The Lonely Island, "I'm on a Boat," was nominated for a Grammy in 2010, T-Pain couldn't help but focus on the fact that the nod wasn't for his actual music but for a "mockery of the art" he made, per The New Yorker. 

The Florida native eventually stopped making music and even lost all of his money at one point before deciding to make a comeback with 2014's "Up Down (Do This All Day)." Today, the "Masked Singer" Season 1 winner is worth a cool $10 million but the dark times he's experienced still weigh on him. This is the tragic real-life story of T-Pain.

T-Pain was supposed to be the biggest name performing at Guyana's annual Mashramani festival in February 2009, but that all changed after the show's promoter, Kerwin Bollers, said "credible death and kidnapping threats" were made against the Florida native, per the Associated Press (via CTV). According to Bollers, "email and phone threats from an unidentified source" were received. Authorities told reporters that they were investigating the matter, and Bollers canceled the show in the interest of safety. But the drama wasn't over for T-Pain because the following month, he faced a $5 million breach of contract lawsuit, along with his Nappy Boy Touring company and his management company, Chase Entertainment, according to The Boombox.

The outlet also reported that Hits And Jams Entertainment, a local Guyanese promotion company, claimed that they had paid the rapper a $75,000 advance and fulfilled a number of other lavish requests including, according to HipHopDX, "more than 10 airline tickets, booking a four-star hotel, and 24-hour room service." David Abram, a rep for Chase Entertainment, was quick to respond that they had offered to return all of the $75,000, adding that the cancelation was caused by "a legitimate security threat" and noting, "We feel horrible about not being able to play the concert. We are going to do what needs to be done to make this right with the promoters. They're a good company. We're a good company." Hits And Jams Entertainment wasn't satisfied, however, responding that a refund could not "remedy the disappointment to the Guyanese fans."

While details of the suspect were initially held back, it was later revealed that Javona Glover's suspected killer was her ex, Tavon Jackson, and the father of her 2-year-old daughter. Speaking with the Tallahassee Democrat in September 2016, Glover's mother, Jennifer Battles, said that T-Pain's niece was murdered "for loving the wrong person." Noting that Jackson "treated her nice at first," she opened up about how he became physically abusive towards his daughter and revealed that Glover had tried to break things off with Jackson and had told him she was seeing someone else the day before she was slain. Jackson then allegedly showed up at her work and stabbed her and was captured fleeing the scene on Walgreens security cameras.

Despite T-Pain's public pleas for help in tracking down the suspect, including sharing photos of Jackson on his Instagram, per NME, no arrest was made and authorities weren't able to identify his whereabouts for a year. It wasn't until February 2017 that TMZ confirmed that authorities had found his body in a wooded area near the original crime scene while working on an unrelated case. They concluded that his cause of death was most likely suicide.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

T-Pain once again endured family tragedy when his brother's (unidentified) illness sent him to "two hospitals for a total of a month and some change" and racked up a whopping $1,402,977 bill. While the rapper didn't share many details of the ordeal, he did tell fans on Instagram (via Page Six) in December 2018 that he paid the bills, adding, "I first wanna say thank you to all the [people] that were involved in keeping my brother alive. I can't express enough gratitude to the medical staff that kept my family whole," he wrote. Sadly, he died that February. And if that wasn't difficult enough, a troll accused T-Pain of being the reason for his brother's death.

Getting candid with Plugged Soundz, T-Pain shared, "This man just told me I let my brother die because of the hospital bills. After I paid $2.2 million in the hospital. And he told me if I would have paid more money, then my brother would still be alive," he said, becoming emotional. Noting that "money don't fix everything," he shared, "I paid $2.2 million, he got out the hospital, he was livin' his life. He had just got back to walking." He went on to say that his brother "slipped up, his leg gave out" while on a walker at their mom's house "and he hit his head on the f****** kitchen counter and his brain started bleeding and he went braindead and then he died. How can money fix that?"