After revealing his Nappy Boy digital label to Billboard.com last year, T-Pain has chosen his first artist, Tay Dizm.
Miami native Dizm's debut single, "Beam Me Up" featuring T-Pain and Rick Ross, hit the Web on May 30. The track is now available on iTunes and has sold 4,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan, without significant promotion.
"It's been tearing up the Internet," says T-Pain. "A producer named Bangladash produced the song, not me, because I don't want my artist's LP to sound like a another T-Pain album."
Nappy Boy's other arists include Young Cash, an MC from Jacksonville, Fla., Sophia Fresh, a female R&B group from Houston that Pain describes as a contemporary TLC, and R&B singer Jay Lyriq from Tallahassee, Fla.
Though Nappy Boy is a digital label, the company doesn't plan to ignore physical product. "We'll eventually release physical albums," says T-Pain. "Right now they still represent 45% of album sales, so we won't ignore it. But in three or four years, there won't be anymore records stores, so we'll be ready."
Despite that position, T-Pain says Nappy Boy will work "Beam Me Up" to radio next month and shoot a video soon. "We'll work it mainly through iTunes, digital downloads and blogs," says T-Pain. "Now, we're just finishing up his album so we can release it third quarter."
In related news, T-Pain's new single, "Silver & Gold," from his September-slated third album, "Thr33 Ringz," hit the Web this week.
Miami native Dizm's debut single, "Beam Me Up" featuring T-Pain and Rick Ross, hit the Web on May 30. The track is now available on iTunes and has sold 4,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan, without significant promotion.
"It's been tearing up the Internet," says T-Pain. "A producer named Bangladash produced the song, not me, because I don't want my artist's LP to sound like a another T-Pain album."
Nappy Boy's other arists include Young Cash, an MC from Jacksonville, Fla., Sophia Fresh, a female R&B group from Houston that Pain describes as a contemporary TLC, and R&B singer Jay Lyriq from Tallahassee, Fla.
Though Nappy Boy is a digital label, the company doesn't plan to ignore physical product. "We'll eventually release physical albums," says T-Pain. "Right now they still represent 45% of album sales, so we won't ignore it. But in three or four years, there won't be anymore records stores, so we'll be ready."
Despite that position, T-Pain says Nappy Boy will work "Beam Me Up" to radio next month and shoot a video soon. "We'll work it mainly through iTunes, digital downloads and blogs," says T-Pain. "Now, we're just finishing up his album so we can release it third quarter."
In related news, T-Pain's new single, "Silver & Gold," from his September-slated third album, "Thr33 Ringz," hit the Web this week.
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