December 1, 2025
Using lyrics from Lil Scrappy and Lil Jon in his hit 2007 song, “Buy U a Drank,” made T-Pain’s bankroll a little smaller.
Florida recording artist T-Pain told Shannon Sharpe that he learned the perils of the publishing game early in his career when when two artists came after him for using familiar phrases from their songs.
On Sharpe’s popular Club Shay Shay podcast, T-Pain explained that he thought he was paying tribute by repeating lines from other songs and artists he respected. Instead, he literally had to pay for his mistakes.
“When I did ‘I’ma ‘Buy U A Drank, then I’ma 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, ‘OK. 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.’
“I thought I was paying homage, and then the people who could take advantage of it took advantage of it. But the thing was, they took advantage of the publishing and the master of it,” he told Sharpe.
Although he had to pay for using the lyrics, T-Pain didn’t think the artists initiated the actions; it may have been the publishing entities that pursued him. But it didn’t matter as he was making a lot of money performing the songs. He told Sharpe he was making $100,000 a show.
In 2007, “Buy U A Drank” was released and reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart and went triple platinum, according to Genius.
Check out the clip below:
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