T-Pain brings two decades of R&B jams to the Iowa State Fair in a hit-filled night

T-Pain turned the temperature up even higher on a hot summer day to no complaints on the second-to-last day of the Iowa State Fair.

Making a stop at the Grandstand on his TP20 Tour, T-Pain unleashed a high-octane, hour-long journey through more than two decades of trailblazing R&B that helped define a generation.

The 13-time nominated and two-time Grammy Award winner turned the venue into a sing-along celebration of his lasting legacy.

charlieonnafriday warms up the crowd

Opening up the evening, charlieonnafriday (Charlie Finch), a rapper and singer-songwriter from Seattle, channeled the rambunctious spirit of T-Pain, priming the crowd for what was in store.

On stage, backed by only his DJ named Jordan, charlieonnafriday delivered a 45-minute set filled with melodic pop music in a low-key performance with tracks like “I’m Not Crazy,” “’81 Camino,” “When It Rains,” and “Wild Child.”

Walking around the stage with confidence and dancing isolated to his upper body, the young star, who released his first studio album in 2022, was unafraid to interact with the audience.

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“I want to say one of my first ever shows was in Ames, Iowa,” he said. “There wasn’t many people there, but those 50 people in that room, we were, we were rocking out, having a good time. So it feels good to be back in Iowa.”

With paper fans waving in the audience, the people who showed up early for the opener seemed to save their energy for the peaks of his songs, like during his best-known hits, like “After Hours,” from his self-titled album, “ONNAFRIDAY.” He never missed a beat and got people to dance, even if they were still sitting down.

T-Pain storms the stage with back-to-back hits, owning the night

As the house lights dimmed and the stage lights went up, the new wave anthem, “The Safety Dance,” by Men Without Hats filled the Grandstand, interrupted by thunderous bass and a black and white video montage that seemed like an in memoriam for T-Pain, before he arrived on stage. He launched into back-to-back hits without a pause, including “Take Your Shirt Off,” “Up Down (Do This All Day),” “Cyclone,” and “2 Step.”

T-Pain told the audience that the first four songs of the evening served as his and his onstage DJ, DJ Montay’s soundcheck for the evening, and the already high-energy night launched in an upward trajectory. But first, T-Pain laid the crowd rules, called “Operation Ghetto Fancy.”

“There’s only one rule, and that rule is don’t kill T-Pain,” T-Pain said. “I don’t know how many people know this, but last year I turned 40 years old. I’m starting to get grey hairs, and my knees buckled the second I got out here. In order for us not to kill T-Pain, we are going to run ‘Operation Ghetto Fancy.’ That means I can do a bunch of ghetto stuff and still do it in a fancy way that won’t kill me.”

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If T-Pain’s knees did buckle when he hit the stage, he didn’t show it. Dressed in all black from his hat, which he abandoned shortly into his set, down to his sneakers, his jewelry sparkling from the neon strobe lights he bathed in all night on stage. He danced along to the hits with the same exuberance as he did 20 years ago when he reached mainstream fame.

Continuing to play songs like “Freeze,” “Good Life,” “Blame It,” and “Bartender,” T-Pain rarely diverted from the standard performance formula, of dancing and singing on stage, rinsing and repeating throughout the night. But never did it feel one-note, with the performance filled with banter and humor from T-Pain and DJ Montay, an element perhaps used to allow for the artist to catch his breath in between songs.

“On the night that I turned 40 years old, I laid in my bed just looking up at the ceiling, thinking about everything that led to these moments after the birthday party,” T-Pain said. “… There’s only one question I asked myself that night, and it was, ‘Why are all my songs so goddamn fast?’ I didn’t think about actually being 40 when I was 20-year-old making these songs.”

The breaks of humor, fit for a late-night television talk show, were laced with sincerity. T-Pain thanked the fans, along with the event staff, including the FFA ushers, EMS, and law enforcement, helping people throughout the night in heat-related incidents.

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T-Pain, from Tallahassee, Florida, scoffed in disbelief that the temperature was only 81 degrees in Iowa, which ended with an audience member from the pit throwing their phone onstage to T-Pain to prove to him it was, in fact, only 81 degrees.

T-Pain also showed off his vocal prowess. While he might be best known for his use of autotune in production of his songs, he displayed his deep raspy voice, conducting the audience in a medley of covers, including Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin” and Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me,” an ode to his 2023 project, “On Top Of the Covers.”

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Ending the night, he continued to play his best known hits like “Can’t Believe It” and “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’).” Opting not to play any of his newer releases and projects from the past five years, but kicking it old school, it was a likely and welcomed choice for a tour celebrating the past 20 years of his career.

In a callback to the opening night visuals, a montage, now in color, played as T-Pain closed the night with “All I Do is Win,” a career-spanning highlight reel that could have given the audience full body chills even on the hot night. Fireworks erupted overhead, feeling less like the Iowa State Fair’s nightly ritual and more like a tribute to T-Pain himself.

Next up at the Iowa State Fair Grandstand is children’s music group Kidz Bop.

Jessica Rish is an entertainment, dining and education reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. She can be reached at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rishjessica_

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: On the Iowa State Fair stage, T-Pain delivers nothing but hits