T-Pain's acapella anthem silences critics

T-Pain performing Star Spangled Banner at a LA Dodgers game on Monday

When you think of rapper T-Pain, you'll probably think his voice is more metallic than angelic.

The I'm in Love With a Stripper singer is best known for his mechanical Auto-Tuned voice, which many think the artist uses to disguise his poor singing abilities.

But this weekend, T-Pain, real name Faheem Najm, proved his critics wrong and showed he doesn't need a machine to sound good.

At a LA Dodgers baseball game on Monday, T-Pain performed the US national anthem, and stunned everyone when he belted the lyrics out with soulful passion.

His performance left many speechless, and is raking up the views on YouTube.

T-Pain rose to prominence in the noughties due to his distinctive enhanced voice. He revealed to New York Magazine that once Auto-Tune began to suffer backlash, he fell into depression as he thought he wasn't good enough.

Last year, T-Pain told National Public Radio: "People felt like I was using it to sound good. But I was just using it to sound different."

His fifth studio album, Stoicville, is released this month. He has won two Grammys for his collaborations with Jamie Foxx and Kanye West.

- nzherald.co.nz