Grammy winner and Tallahassee native T-Pain is known for his collaborations, like All I Do Is Win with DJ Khaled, Good Life with Kanye West and Low with his fellow Floridian Flo Rida.
But T-Pain’s latest project takes him out of the music studio and into the kitchen. It’s a book of cocktail recipes called… wait for it… Can I Mix You a Drink? 50 Cocktails from My Life and Career. The book comes out on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. The title is, of course, a play on T-Pain’s 2007 hit song Buy U a Drank. (In 2014, he recorded a stripped-down version of the song for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert.)
T-Pain’s collaborator on the book is New York City mixologist Maxwell Britten. The James Beard Award winner chatted with The Zest about working with T-Pain and how we all can bring a little star power to the cocktails we mix at home.
“I’ve always loved his music,” Britten says of 37-year-old T-Pain. “He and I are close to the same age, so I feel like he was really popularized early in my adulthood and late teens.”
Britten also has a musical background. He’s a former jazz drummer and former business partner of The Django, the legendary Roxy Hotel’s underground jazz and cocktail club.
“Music has always played a very big role in my life,” Britten says. “[The book project] was more than a natural fit for me.”
Britten and T-Pain wrote the book during the pandemic lockdown, collaborating over email and Zoom. Together they brainstormed ideas for the cocktails, all of which are named after T-Pain’s songs.
But Britten notes that you don’t need to be a wealthy celebrity to enjoy a good cocktail.
“We all share the same sense of need for celebration and enjoyment,” Britten says. “Those things don’t have to be a $2,000 glass of Cognac. A lot of the great drinks that are to be had are relatively inexpensive. Just with a little extra effort, you can be drinking just as well as anyone.”
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