Boston, MA. (Top40 Charts/
Radio One) - OurStage, a music discovery destination providing professional opportunities for up-and-coming talent,
Radio One, Inc. (www.radio-one.com), the urban media specialist, and Grammy Award-winning artist
T-Pain have announced Twank Star as the winner of the "Step in the Ring Challenge," their joint effort to discover the next hip-hop or R&B star. On December 5th, 2008, Twank Star was contacted live on air by
T-Pain on
Radio One's Russ Parr Morning Show where the announcement took place and Twank Star's winning single featuring
T-Pain was played. In addition to receiving promotional support for the winning song, Twank Star will also receive a one-track recording contract with Nappy Boy Digital, with the option to extend. The winning track is also available for download on iTunes and streaming on OurStage.com.
To enter, artists downloaded T-Pain's "Everybody Else" from OurStage.com and completed the song with their own lyrics. After collecting 1,000 submissions in less than 2 weeks, T-Pain let the OurStage community judge the songs to find the top 10 favorites. To rank all of the songs, OurStage fans judged 700,000 head-to-head battles. The contest was promoted on-air and on-line via Radio One mainstream urban stations and the nationally syndicated Russ Parr Morning Show.
"While all of the top 10 songs were really impressive, Twank Star's collabo was the clear winner in my eyes," T-Pain said. "I designed my label, Nappy Boy Digital, to break down barriers and introduce new voices like Twank Star to the masses. I'm looking forward to taking him to the next level."
"T-Pain is one the hottest producers in the game right now," said Jay Stevens, SVP Programming, Radio One. "This promotion was a creative way to promote his new CD as well as give our radio stations compelling, interactive content, so it is a win win for us. The promotion was a huge success and we appreciated our partnership with OurStage and look forward to future opportunities."
"The partnership with T-Pain, his team, and Radio One has been a huge success for everyone involved," said Ben Campbell, CEO, OurStage. "We are proud to collaborate with top-notch artists like T-Pain, partners with great national reach such as Radio One, and production companies, who offer unprecedented promotion and a career-launching pad to deserving OurStage artists like Twank Star. We look forward to a on-going collaboration with T-Pain and our partners to continue to help make a meaningful difference in the lives of deserving musicians."
T-Pain, who was recently lauded with Songwriter of the Year and Producer of the Year honors at the BMI Urban Awards, is in the midst of promoting his new album THR33 RINGZ. The much-buzzed-about disc features collaborations with artists such as Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, Ludacris, T.I., Kanye West, Akon, Diddy, Mary J. Blige, and Ciara, among others. As recently pointed by Billboard, over the course of the past two years, T-Pain has enjoyed 27 top 10 songs collectively on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs charts. His success story continues with "Can't Believe It," the lead single from THR33 RINGZ, which has sold more than a half-million digital copies in only nine weeks.
Through relationships with Noise Pop, Bonnaroo, Bumbershoot, CMJ and more, OurStage has awarded more than 75 slots to popular OurStage acts at major national music festivals in 2008. Additional awards include performance opportunities opening for artists including Maroon 5 and Counting Crows at nationally acclaimed Live Nation venues and exposure to new audiences through AOL Music. OurStage also recently launched the popular iPhone app, OurStage Radio.
To download "Everybody Else" from iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=299812546&s=143441.
For more information and to listen to the winning song, visit https://www.ourstage.com/go/tpain.
The Tallahassee native burst on scene in 2005 with his debut Rappa Ternt Sanga and the unforgettable singles "I'm Sprung" and "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)," a song that maintains the title of the highest-selling ring tone. T-Pain's success story continued with 2007's Epiphany, which spawned the No 1 airplay record of the year, "Buy U a Drank" (featuring Yung Joc) and the ubiquitous No 1 hit "Bartender." He also made headlines as a producer and featured artist on tracks such as Flo-Rida's "Low, "Chris Brown's "Kiss Kiss" and Lil Wayne's "Got Money." Last year also saw T-Pain record the chart-topping hit "Good Life" with Kanye West, a track that earned him his first Grammy for Best Rap Song and also garnered a BET Award, the latter an event on which he was the most nominated artist of the night.
About OurStage, Inc.:
OurStage is a music discovery destination dedicated to new artist and new music discovery. On OurStage, artists, fans and industry professionals all come together - to discover, judge, & enjoy the best new music and the best new artists online - as ranked by the fans - in the company's proprietary, game-proof judging engine. Users are able to discover top ranked, categorized music without having to search through thousands of songs. Top-ranked artists receive significant career-building promotion and support from established artists, industry professionals, and a broad assortment of partners, including AOL Music, Bonnaroo, Bumbershoot, PLUG Awards, Newport Folk Festival, JVC Jazz Festival Newport, Paste Magazine, CMJ, Noise Pop, and many others. Founded in 2007, OurStage delivers music and related content to more than 2 million fans in 140 countries each month - and has over 300,000 registered users.
About Nappy Boy Digital:
Acclaimed artist and producer T-Pain steps to the forefront of the digital music world with his full service independent record label, Nappy Boy Digital. Nappy Boy Digital provides a direct artist to consumer connection as well as an immediate outlet for T-Pain to release his latest and greatest tracks. Without the constraints of the traditional major label machine, Nappy Boy Digital delivers new music directly into the hands of millions of online music lovers via major digital download sites. T-Pain's longtime rap collaborator, Tay Dizm, is Nappy Boy Digital's first signing. The Miami-born MC has appeared on both of T-Pain's full length releases, Rappa Ternt Sanga (2005) and Epiphany (2007) and toured the globe extensively alongside T-Pain. Dizm's debut single, "Beam Me Up," was produced by Atlanta hitmaker Bangladesh and features T-Pain and heavyweight Florida rapper, Rick Ross.
About Radio One, Inc.:
Radio One, Inc. (www.radio-one.com) is one of the nation's largest radio broadcasting companies and the largest radio broadcasting company that primarily targets African American and urban listeners. Radio One owns and/or operates 53 radio stations located in 16 urban markets in the United States. Radio One also owns Magazine One, which publishes Giant Magazine (www.giantmag.com), interests in TV One (www.tvoneonline.com), a cable/satellite network programming primarily to African Americans, Reach Media (www.blackamericaweb.com), owner of the Tom Joyner Morning Show and other businesses associated with Tom Joyner, and Interactive One, which includes the highly popular social networking websites BlackPlanet.com and MiGente.com and additional websites targeted to African Americans such as NewsOne.com, TheUrbanDaily.com and HelloBeautiful.com. The company is led by Chairperson and Founder Catherine L. Hughes, and her son, Alfred Liggins, III, who is Chief Executive Officer and President.
