The fantastic foursome of Will.I.Am, Fergie, Taboo and apl.de.ap – otherwise known as the Black Eyed Peas, came together for a final farewell at Miami’s Sun Life Stadium on Wednesday.

Hosted by Queen Latifah, the concert also featured performances from Cee-Lo Green, Jason DeRulo, Flo Rida, T-Pain and Sean Kingston – all respectable fans of the Peas.

Will.i.am reflected on the earlier days of the Californian group. “I remember when we got 30 dollars to play a Cal State Northridge party. And it feels so good that this many years later we’re here  and we thank you guys from the bottom of our hearts for helping us pursue our dreams.”

He also had some advice for up-and-coming musicians:

“Whatever it is you wanna do in life, if somebody tells you no, don’t listen to them. Pursue your dreams, surround yourself with good friends,” he preached. “Black Eyed Peas is a family, we are friends, and we helped each other get here—and you guys are an extension of that friendship. We are here in this stadium today representing family and love, a day before Thanksgiving, and we thank you guys for the love.”

He is in the midst of prepping his much-hyped solo album “#willpower” that is set for release next year. Fergie, the 36-year-old songstress, wants to focus on starting a family with her husband, actor Josh Duhamal. While apl.de.ap is planning on going home to the Philippines and Taboo will get to spend more time with his family. It’s the end of an era, my friends.

Despite their hiatus, the group insists they are not breaking up. ”We always have two cycles of records and then we take a break. And then two cycles of records and then a break. When we take breaks you know, we work on side projects and get our personal stuff in order then come back and make beautiful music. We think beautiful music,” he recently told Ellen DeGeneres.

Will you miss BEP? Let us know.

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Chris Brown is heading out on the road to support his new release, F.A.M.E. T-Pain, Kelly Rowland and Tyga will be joining him.

“This tour will allow me to paint a picture musically,” commented Brown.  “I want to bring a lot of energy and excitement to all the fans. It’s going to be a great show.”

Here are the F.A.M.E. tour dates:

Sept. 12: Toronto, Canada (Molson Canadian Amphitheatre)

Sept. 14: Buffalo, N.Y. (Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)

Sept. 16: Holmdel, N.J. (PNC)

Sept. 17: Washington, D.C. (Verizon Center)

Sept. 18: Detroit, Mich. (Joe Louis Arena)

Sept. 21: Cleveland, OH (CSU)

Sept. 23: Chicago, Ill. (Tinley Park)

Sept. 24: St. Louis, Mo. (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater)

Sept. 25: Indianapolis, Ind. (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater)

Sept. 28: Baltimore, Md. (1s Mariner Arena)

Sept. 30: Uniondale, N.Y. (Nassau Coliseum)

Oct. 1: Raleigh, N.C. (Walnut Creek Amphitheatre)

Oct. 2: Atlanta, Ga. (Lakewood Amphitheatre)

Oct. 7: Tampa, Fla. (1 800 ASK GARY)

Oct. 8: Charlotte, N.C. (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre)

Oct. 9: Virginia Beach, Va. (Farm Bureau Amphitheatre)

Oct. 12: Kansas City, Mo. (Sprint Center)

Oct. 14: Dallas, Tex. (GEXA Pavilion)

Oct. 15: New Orleans, La. (New Orleans Arena)

Oct. 16: Houston, TX (Woodlands)

Oct. 18: Phoenix, Ariz. (Ashley Pavilion)

Oct. 20: Los Angeles, Calif. (Staples Center)

Oct. 22: Oakland, Calif. (Sleep Train Concord)

Oct. 23: Sacramento, Calif. (Sleep Train Amphitheatre)

Oct. 26: Memphis, Tenn. (Fed Ex Forum)

Oct. 28: Philadelphia, Pa. (Wells Fargo Arena)

Oct. 29: Pittsburgh, Pa. (Consol Energy Center)

Oct. 30: Hartford, Conn. (XL Center)

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T-Pain is vowing that he will never use Auto-Tune again, reports AllHipHop.com.

The rapper and producer told the hip hop site exclusively that he will never use Auto-Tune in his music again. Auto-tune is the singing effect that T-Pain made famous, which digitally makes voices sing on key.

It often makes them sound like a robot, too.

“I vow right here, right now, to never use Auto-Tune again,” said T-Pain in a statement. “I’m onto something that I think is bigger and better called ‘The T-Pain Effect.’”

No, he isn’t being funny or ironic. The rapper actually plans to develop a sound called “The T-Pain Effect.” He has reportedly partnered with Izotope, an audio technology company, to produce this so-called new effect.

T-Pain without Auto-Tune is like Lindsay Lohan without drugs or Arnold Schwarzenegger without secret love child’s. It’s just so bizarre. The man has an iTunes app that Auto-Tune’s peoples voice, for goodness sake. We’ll see if this lasts, because it’s kind of the only thing going for him at the moment.

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I didn’t think anybody but T-Pain bought into the Autotune trend, but it looks like I was wrong.

Apple has released an iPhone application that allows you to Autotune your voice, and has apply called it “I Am T-Pain” after the rapper who brought the device to overwhelming mainstream employment. The app retails at $2.99 and comes with T-Pain’s instrumental discography as well as a Freestyle option that allows you to sing whatever the heck you want and sound like a robot.

T-Pain has actually based his career on his electronic-induced vocals, with songs like “Buy you a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” and even won a spot “singing” on the SNL’s Lonely Island skit, “I’m on a Boat.”

The app comes just weeks after Jay-Z released the single “Death of Autotune” on YouTube, where he slams the device, saying “I know we facin’ a recession/ but the music y’all makin’ gonna make it the Great Depression.”

T-Pain told MTV News he was “honored” by the song, somehow.

“That affected me in a great way, man. I made sure I honored him as a great songwriter . . . that’s like the best song I heard in a couple years, man,” he told MTV. “And it’s great that somebody that important stepped up and vouched for me.”

But Twitter reported something different this week. Fabolous spent his weekend tweeting from Rehab nightclub in Las Vegas where T-Pain was DJing and apparently slamming Jay-Z.

“Yo I’m at Rehab in Vegas.. T-Pain is Dj’ing.. Sayin Fuck Jay Z, he old, blah blah.. guess its backlash from D.O.A..,” Fabolous posted.

Apparently the DJ who followed T-Pain was unfazed and started his set with “Death of Autotune.”

Jay-Z has not responded, because Jay-Z doesn’t care.

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In life (and in the hip-hop industry especially), there’s an unwritten code: as you approach the veteran years of your career, you’re expected to lose a step in your game.

Twista did not get that memo.

In fact, with 18 years of experience in the business so far, the Chicago hip-hop legend doesn’t see a career decline anytime soon. Nope, on the contrary. He says that some of his best work is yet to come.

Think about that for a moment.

This is coming from the guy who’s had two of his past six studio albums go platinum and crack the top ten list on the U.S. Billboard top 200, collaborations with some of the music industry’s finest talent including Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, T.I, and Akon, and not to mention, this is also the former Guinness World Record holder for the fastest rapper in the world.

But despite all of his accomplishments, the 35-year-old is still confident that there’s room to improve, and has thus named his seventh studio album Category F5, the term for the most severe and dangerous Tornado level known to mankind on the Fujita scale.

“When all is said and done,” Twista tells andPOP, “I want everyone to see Twista as a timeless artist.

“I really want people to see that ‘this n***a came into the game a while back and was blowing away people with his lyrics from the beginning all the way until the end, and still at 35, he’s still competing with some of the hottest n***as in the game now.”

With stakes so high and something planned to be so colossal, the rapper thought it was necessary to be more involved in the production of this record.

“There were a lot of things hands-on this time,” recalls Twista. “I used to have some people do some stuff for me, but this time I really dove into the mixing and listening to the first cuts.

“But this hands-on thing really challenged me, so it was like I was sitting somewhere in the basement going crazy like mad scientist, hard at work, trying to get the album the way I wanted it to sound.”

But hard work isn’t foreign to Twista. Born and bred on Chicago’s West Side, Twista- real name Carl Mitchell -is quite familiar with the feeling of grinding through the ranks, networking, and continuing to push forward. In fact, it’s safe to say that Twista is one of the best networking artists in the entire industry.

Case in show, at the time he released his third album Adrenaline Rush in 1997, Twista’s services as a rapid-tongued lyrical speed-demon were constantly desired by the majority of the biz. Kind of like the way someone requests a special hot sauce to give their food that extra spike, Twista was indeed that secret sauce, and the industry couldn’t get enough of him.

Timbaland, Ludacris, P. Diddy, Kanye West. The list goes on and on.

“Everyone knows I’m happy to help them out anytime,” explains Twista. “I put my heart and soul into everything, and the tracks that they ask me to jump on. So it feels good to know they have my back and can return the favor.”

And the original favor returned was well worth it. His 2004 album Kamikaze attracted, upon many, the likes of longtime Chi-town friend Kanye West and actor/singer Jamie Foxx, who all together created the album’s Grammy nominated star pupil Slow Jamz. The album’s popularity was so hot that it not only reached platinum status, but also earned the No. 1 spot on the U.S. Billboard top 200.

Ever since Kamikaze, however, Twista has yet to generate as much success.

The following two projects, The Day After (2005), and Adrenaline 2007 (2007) did do fairly well- the first going platinum and the second going gold – but somehow their growth was stunted.

It’s one of Twista’s main hopes that F5 will break that trend, and help reclaim his spotlight.

“When people hear this album,” says Twista, “I just want them to see me, and how I’m still a part of what’s going on.”

Helping him hopefully meet that goal are the A-listing cast that he attracted once again- no surprise there. Throwing out big names such as Kanye, Akon, Busta Rhymes, R. Kelly, and longtime friend on the production side, The Legendary Traxster, the cast can only be assessed as simply more fire power for this already machine gun rapper.

“I’m still so phased by it now,” says Twista. “It’s a great group to have in the studio, such top artists all working together to achieve excellence- nothing better than that.”

Dig deeper, and you’ll find that his allegiances with some of the guys go further than just past one-time gigs.  Take him and Trax for example. Like peanut butter and jelly, they both go all the way back to when Twista first began spitting out beats on records.  Or R. Kelly, who was a guest at Twista’s original release party in 1991. Or even Kanye, who Twista recalls spending tons of time with, at his house, while they were younger.

“Man, I was chilling with him when he was still getting into trouble with his mother,” Twista says laughing. “But overall, I guess I’m just lucky to have a great relationship with everybody.”

F5 also gives Twista a chance to put his career on a path towards “longevity”- a dream and word that he cannot repeat enough throughout the interview. Almost like a four syllable mantra.

“Hip-hop artists’ careers end way too quickly,” says Twista. “It’s sad, and it would be great if they can last as long as the way R&B artists do. Just like James Brown.”

Then he pauses.

“You know what, I wanna be like the Jason Voorhees of rap,” he adds, chuckling, referring to the machete-wielding hockey-masked fictional character in Friday the 13th who just never dies.

And for someone who has seen it all over the years- from the CD to the MP3 era -Twista points out the evolution of his playground, and the current “impure” state of the industry.

“Right now,” he explains, “everyone’s trying to make money off of it. It’s more impure than it has been in a long time.”

“But I think that everything has the potential to do a 360. Like there’s a lot of negatives that have come from the whole technology aspect in the music industry, but there’s also a lot of positives. You’ll hear a lot of raw talent from the internet.”

Adds the rapper, “I guess it’s that I like being a true artist, so I like when a person can really play an instrument, or is really talented to put together a release, or someone who can really rap their ass off. I would like to hear more of that. I’m not against the fans view, because that’s what they love. But I wanna even it out a little bit.”

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After credible death and kidnapping threats, T-Pain has cancelled his concert in Guyana.

According to E! News, the rapper had been the main event for Monday’s Mash 2009 “mega-concert”- actually, one of the biggest names to be scheduled to play in Guyana in years.

Local police say they are attempting to ascertain the identity of the person or persons who emailed and phoned several threats. No comment from Team T-Pain.

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Nelly is trying to form a supergroup with Akon T-Pain and Pharell. The rapper told MTV News, “Me, Akon, T-Pain and Pharrell are talking about doing a project,” he said this past Friday. “We got a host of things we’re trying to do — possibly put together this new 2009 [Bell Biv DeVoe] type of thing.”

And Nelly isn’t worried about their busy schedules getting in the way of collaborating, “I don’t think you try to put things together with people you don’t think you can accomplish [them] with,” said Nely. “With ‘Kon, with Pain and Pharrell, I know it’s more about the music than anything. It’s about leaving something. I think we’re all OK as far as the money thing goes. I don’t think anybody is hurting. You wanna do things you can be remembered by. Make a mark. I think that’s something that’s foremost on all our minds.”

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T-Pain has five nominations going into the upcoming Black Entertainment TV (BET) Hip-Hop Awards – all for collaborations with other artists.

The R&B singer-songwriter earned his nods, three of them in the best collaboration category, as a featured artist on recordings by Chris Brown, Flo Rida and Kanye West.

West himself received three nominations, as did Keyshia Cole. Coming in with two nods each were Mary J Blige, Alicia Keys and Flo Rida.

Meanwhile, soul singer Al Green will receive a lifetime achievement award at the ceremony, and Quincy Jones will receive an award for his humanitarian work.

Artists scheduled to perform at the June 24 gala in Los Angeles include Blige, Nelly, Lil Wayne and Mariah Carey.

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On his debut album, T-Pain says he made music people wanted to hear. He was proven correct when nearly one million fans purchased 2005′s “Rappa Ternt Sanga,” and when he saw two of his singles – “I’m N Luv (Wit A Stripper)” and “I’m Sprung” – reach the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

But for his sophomore album, “Epiphany,” T-Pain says his focus was not on what people wanted to hear but about him being an artist.

“When you record what you think people want to hear, you’re following a trend,” T-Pain explains to andPOP. “On the first album I was going into clubs and listening to the radio and listening to mix tapes and seeing what songs were getting the most response and the most fans and I was just making songs like those.

“Now I want to be on my own so I’m just making songs coming out of my heart. I’m just not following the trend.”

He’s not worried, though, that the change in his mindset – and therefore a change in his music – could alienate some fans. And he shouldn’t be.

When the first-week sales are officially announced later this week, T-Pain will debut in the top five with sales exceeding 100,000 copies. (Update: T-Pain debuted at No. 1 on the album sales charts.)

He had no worries because his philosophy was that he’d hook them with the first album and then offer them something a little different with album No. 2.

“People are cool with me. It’s just my personality in music form,” T-Pain says, on the line from New York City. “Every time I meet someone, they tell me I’m a great dude. Great dudes make great music.”

The music on “Epiphany” isn’t drastically different than his debut album. There’s still the crunk-inspired style of R&B that hooked fans two years ago. Instead of flirting with a stripper, he’s offering them drinks (The first two singles are “Buy U a Drank” and “Bartender.”).

But T-Pain says his fans will be listening to a new mature man.

“I was recording songs for my album and I was like, ‘what the hell am I doing,’” he says, explaining the album’s name. “I just had to do something different. I was just recording the same old stuff from my old album. It just dawned on me that I needed to do something different and be more mature.”

The maturity is evident on the track called “Suicide.”

“It’s saying that people commit suicide everyday, not by killing themselves but by doing stupid shit, just doing retarded stuff that they know can end up killing them. Unprotected sex, you get the wrong person with that, that can definitely kill you; that’s suicide.”

T-Pain looked to personal experiences for inspiration for the song.

“My younger life, when I was doing crazy crap, like getting out of school and hanging with the wrong people and doing stuff with the wrong girls, it’s just ridiculous. That all could have killed me. I could have been dead from doing stupid shit.

“I just got bored. I just had to move on. It was too much. All the shit that was happening to me just happened too many times. There was a natural [thought of] let me get the hell out of here.”

More on T-Pain:

• andPOP’s behind the scenes interview report

• T-Pain Working with Britney Spears, Usher and Kanye West
• Win a T-Pain CD and autographed poster!

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