T-Pain points to his working relationship with DJ Khaled as a perfect example of why artists shouldn't blindly trust the word "brother."
During a candid conversation on Club Shay Shay with Shannon Sharpe, T-Pain said that one of the toughest lessons he learned from his 20-year career is that loyalty in the industry often disappears once the benefits run dry.
"Nobody is your brother. Nobody," he told Sharpe. "Everybody is your brother while they can use you."
The "Buy U a Drank" artist explained that he'd rather people be straightforward about the partnership than hide behind emotional language.
"Tell me what the business is," he said. "Say, 'We're gonna make some money, separate for a while, and I'll come back when I need you.' Cool. Don't hit me with the 'you my brother' stuff."
T-Pain then mentioned DJ Khaled, someone he collaborated with on major hits like "I'm So Hood (Remix)," "Welcome to My Hood," "All I Do Is Win," and "Go Hard."
Despite helping support Khaled's rise during that dominant late-2000s run, Pain said the bond wasn't what he thought it was.
"Fucking DJ Khaled. Everybody done told me 'I'm your brother.' Do not believe that shit," Pain said, clarifying that Khaled is simply the first example that comes to mind, not the only one.
He stressed that this wasn't about personal beef but about recognizing patterns.
"Think about how many people I've helped in their career," he continued. "Back to back to back, 'You're my brother, you're my brother.' And none of that shit was reciprocated. None of it meant anything."
In T-Pain's experience, once someone's career takes off, they often disappear, even after he played a major role in getting them there. Pain also noted that the real ones are the artists who insist on giving back after you help them.
He made clear that he's not bitter, just wiser.
"When you build somebody's career and all they say is, 'Yo, you my brother' … you'll never see them again," he said. "The people who say, 'There's something I can do for you,' those are the ones you keep around."
He added, "When people tell you how much you mean to them, don't grab onto that. When people tell you how much they can mean to you in return, that's the shit you gravitate toward."
In an Instagram Story on Thursday (Nov. 27), T-Pain clarified that he "didn't say fuck [DJ Khaled]" during the Club Shay Shay conversation.
"I’m from Florida and n***as apparently can’t understand how fast I talk," the artist wrote. "I said ‘fucking dj Khaled…’ because I was about to start a list but decided to just move on. It’s still love I just learned how to move around n***as now."