In one of the stranger collaborations we’ve come across in recent memory, hit-making singer and rapper T-Pain has teamed up with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to release an acoustic guitar-driven remake of raunchy club hit “Get Low” by Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz featuring Ying Yang Twins. No, really…
As Zuckerberg posted about the collab on Instagram, one of the various social media platforms he owns and operates as the head of Meta Platforms, the cover was a tribute to his wife, Priscilla Chan. “‘Get Low’ was playing when I first met Priscilla at a college party,” he wrote, “so every year we listen to it on our dating anniversary. This year I worked with [T-Pain] on our own version of this lyrical masterpiece. Sound on for the track and also available on Spotify. Love you P ❤️.”
In addition to contextual photos of young Zuckerberg and young Chan and a photo of the song’s provocative lyrics circled with a heart, the post includes a number of photos of Zuckerberg and T-Pain recording the track and riding bicycles together.
T-Pain also posted about the collab, stating simply, “Z-Pain has arrived.”
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Did anyone really need Mark Zuckerberg turning “Get Low” into a cheesy, bubblegum-pop love song? No, probably not. In a world in which billionaires—particularly those in media—exert outsized influence in the dissemination of information and ideas, seeing an established star cozy up to one such one-percent-er in cringeworthy fashion is enough to raise an army of eyebrows and inspire a T-Pain-style, auto-tuned chorus of, “But why, though?” from the general public.
At the very least, you can take solace in the fact that proceeds from the song will benefit the Save The Music Foundation, formerly known as VH1 Save The Music, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports music education in public schools.
But while we’re not exactly sure who’s actually excited about hearing Mark Zuckerberg’s music, we’ve always been fans of T-Pain—and T-Pain has always avoided giving any sort of f— about what people expect or think. Don’t forget, this is the same pop/hip-hop heavyweight who recently enjoyed a new career Renaissance thank to an album of earnest, lounge singer-style covers of artists like Black Sabbath, Journey, Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, and more—the same guy whose “manifesto,” which he recites to fans at each show, includes the rule, “Don’t do it because it’s cool, do it because you’re cool.”
Seemingly in response to such “WTF” sentiments toward his Zuck collab, T-Pain followed his post about the Z-Pain track with a video in which he emphasizes the need to be able to have fun.
“Now, one thing that I have learned in this whole journey, if there’s one thing fosho, it’s that it is impossible for some people to have fun. And let me tell you something, I understand that,” T-Pain says in the video. “Sometimes s— gets tough, sometimes there’s too many bad things happening at one time, you’re waiting on the one good thing, and I understand that, and it’s impossible for you to have fun with anything in life, and that f—ing sucks. But I will tell you, the next impossible thing is for you to stop me from having fun. I’m gon’ f—in’ have it, baby. I’m gon’ live my life and I’m gon’ do what I wanna do because I’ve learned how to not worry about what y’all talkin’ about. The thing that I do worry about is you wasting your time trying to get me to stop having fun.”
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So, more power to you for having fun, T-Pain. And Zuck, you’re allowed to have fun, too, but maybe stop f—ing around with crunk hits from the early ’00s and get back to adjusting the Facebook algorithm so that it’s not all trash memes, bots selling fake t-shirts, and ads for poor-quality clothes from China.
And if you really want to listen to the new Z-Pain track, you can do that below, I guess.
Z-Pain (T-Pain & Mark Zuckerberg) – “Get Low” (Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz ft. Ying Yang Twins) – Official Video
Z-Pain (T-Pain & Mark Zuckerberg) – “Get Low” (Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz ft. Ying Yang Twins)
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