T-Pain Doesn’t Hold The Publishing And Masters Rights Of ‘Buy U A Drank,’ But Here’s How Much He Earns From Performing The Single – AfroTech
In a recent interview, T-Pain shared he could have made more money from his hit song, “Buy U A Drank.”
The rapper from Tallahassee, FL, first experienced commercial success with the release of “I’m Sprung” in 2005, which was the lead single from his debut album “Rappa Ternt Sanga.” The song peaked at No. 8 and remained on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart for 26 weeks, Revolt reports.
In 2007, “Buy U A Drank” was released and was even more successful. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart and went triple Platinum, according to Genius.
T-Pain reflected on the success of the single and how it impacted his wealth on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast. He made revenue, but suggested he could have earned more if the masters and publishing rights agreement had been different.
His song paid respect to rappers Lil Scrappy and Lil Jon, prompting the artists to claim publishing rights.
“When I did ‘I’mma Buy U A Drank, then I’mma take you home with me. I got money in the bank.’ As soon as I said ‘Money in the bank,’ that’s when Lil Scrappy came in and was like, ‘Okay. Well, he said a line from my song’. Lil Scrappy had the song at the time, ‘I got money in the bank. Shawty what ya thank … So, at the beginning of the song when I say, ‘Snap your fingers, do your step. You can do it all by [yourself].’ Then Lil Jon came in, ‘Well, since this song is doing well, don’t mind if I do,’” T-Pain shared on the podcast.
“I thought I was paying homage and then the people that could take advantage of it, they took advantage of it. But the thing was they took advantage of the publishing and the master of it,” he continued.
T-Pain added that he does not believe Lil Scrappy and Lil Jon were directly behind it all, but rather their publishers.
“Lil Jon probably still don’t know that we went through that whole thing,” he said.
The silver lining for T-Pain was that while others may be profiting from the masters and publishing rights of the single, that wasn’t slowing down his earnings from performing it. While they could have been earning 8 cents every 3 months from it, he was making $100,000 a night, he told “Club Shay Shay” host Shannon Sharpe.
“Be greedy, but you’re not going to get what I’m doing. So do your thing. I mean, it’s still love to all of them,” T-Pain expressed.
