T-Pain turned a career’s worth of chart-toppers into a $100 million payday after selling his catalog to HarbourView Equity Partners, a move he says fast-tracked generational wealth.
During a revealing sit-down on the Club Shay Shay podcast, the Grammy-winning artist explained how the deal came together and why it was a no-brainer.
“The amount of money that they gave me for my catalog, it literally would have taken me a hundred years to make that money. I calculated it,” he said. “At first I was like, ‘why would I sell y’all this?’ And they were like, ‘look, here’s how much you’re making per year off of this. We’re gonna give you a hundred years worth of money right here all at once.’ I didn’t think that was a hard calculation.”
The 39-year-old hitmaker, who helped redefine the sound of modern Hip-Hop with his signature Auto-Tune style, said he shared the news with his wife in disbelief.
“I discussed it with my wife. I said, ‘hey, babe. The kids gone to school? I got to talk to you about something that’s real important about the future. I was like, can I close the door? Cause I don’t want the rest of the house to hear. So, I closed the door. ‘we rich, we rich, we got $100 million dollars.’ We rich.”
But the deal wasn’t just a one-time payout. T-Pain revealed that HarbourView is now invested in his future creative output, not just his past hits.
“HarbourView, the people I sold my catalog to, they didn’t just say, ‘we want your catalog.’ They said, ‘we’ll buy your catalog. But also, if you make another hit, we want that, too. If you make more songs, we want them, too. If you make a hit TV series, we want that, too. If you make a football league that nobody even thought of, we want that, too. If you score a movie, we want that, too. So it’s a partnership now.”
The Florida native has already started investing his earnings. He purchased a 50,000-square-foot warehouse in Tallahassee to house his growing Nappy Boy business operations, spanning entertainment, gaming, and beverages. He also bought a plane.
The sale marks a significant milestone in T-Pain’s career, including over 50 million singles sold, billions of streams, and more than 10 Billboard Hot 100 entries.
This year also marks the 20th anniversary of several of his biggest records, including “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’),” “Bartender” featuring Akon and “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper)” with Mike Jones.
Outside of music, T-Pain has built a strong presence on Twitch, where his livestreams have earned him a loyal following and further cemented his reputation as an entertainer and entrepreneur.