T-Pain Isn't His Real Name

Shocking as it may seem, "T-Pain" is not the birth name of the iconic rapper who is "feat.'d" in such hits as Low, Shawty, and of course the historic and ground-breaking single, I'm On a Boat. No, his parents were not in tune with his bright future.

T-Pain's birth certficate reads: Faheem Rasheed Najm. Why he didn't leave this as his rapper name is unknown. The self-proclaimed Muslim didn't go with the obvious. He could have easily gotten away with any of the following hip-hop nicknames. I know I would have:

Fah-Rah
Heem-Sheed
F-Najm
Rash-Naj

The possibilities are virtually endless. Out of the thousands of 2-syllable rapper names that can be made with such a mutlifaceted name as Faheem Rasheed Najm, one often wonders where and why he came up with "T-Pain."

According to the Encylopedia of the Internet, "T" is short for Talahasee -- where young Faheem endured many a hardship.

I hate to think if Mr. Najm had been born a Jew in the 1930s.

After surviving the holocaust of his people, would Faheem have become a famous big-bander named A-Throbbing?

Only click that link if you fail at figuring things out.

Here's Faheem looking quite gangster.