George Napolitano/Getty ImagesWill Tim McGraw be ditching his cowboy hats and boots for a gold grill grin?
Probably not, but the hip-hop world sure does love the country superstar. Four years ago McGraw and Nelly collaborated on "Over and Over." Earlier this month McGraw reportedly recorded a new single, "Human," for Chris Brown's upcoming album.
And now there's more. Hip-hop impresario T-Pain tells us exclusively that he's also going into the studio with McGraw. T-Pain says the idea was hatched when the two met while both were appearing on Saturday Night Live last month.
“We talked about getting in the studio together, so that's probably going to happen soon," T-Pain says. "I definitely think we could do something cool and different."
But he promises something much different from the Nelly-McGraw tune.
How so?
Unlike McGraw’s hip-hop-centric collaboration with Nelly, T-Pain says he wants it the other way around. "The hip-hop has been done with Tim and Nelly, so we gotta be more country than hip-hop," he says. McGraw wasn't T-Pain's only pick for a country collaboration. He was interested in one of McGraw's fellow chart-toppers, but that idea quickly fell apart. "I heard he was a racist," T-Pain says.
For now, the Grammy-winning T-Pain has his new tour with Lil Wayne, Keyshia Cole, Gym Class Heroes and Keri Hilson to think about. He’s already gotten a firsthand look at Lil Wayne’s body-art obsession. "I saw him get a tattoo on the inside of his lips. It was a smiley face," T-Pain says, adding with a chuckle, "I think he ran out of space everywhere else on his body…That was just strange to me. Weird."
And when T-Pain isn't busy touring or hitting the studio, the “I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)” performer is a family man—but definitely not in the Brady Bunch kind of way. "My wife loves strippers too! She goes to strip clubs with me," he brags. In fact, T-Pain reveals, "For my birthday, my wife got me 25 strippers."
We can only imagine what she does for their anniversary.
—Additional reporting by Dahvi Shira