T-Pain Celebrates First #1 Album: 'It's Special, Man'

[Damien J.]

T-Pain can "Buy You a Drank." Matter of fact, he can buy you a few rounds.

The R&B singer's latest, Epiphany, topped the Billboard albums chart this week. Ample cause for celebration.

"It's special, man," said Pain, whose single "Buy You a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" is one of the main reasons for his current success. "I ain't never expect to be up there, so it was never a goal to me. I was happy with being 20 [on the charts]. I was just happy to be on a chart."

The Tallahassee, Florida, native said he felt the 'pagne Wednesday (June 13) after getting the news. His friends and record-label reps poured champagne on him like he just beat the Cleveland Cavilers to win the NBA title.

"I had to change clothes and everything," he said. "It felt good to be recognized after being hated on for so long."

The rapper-turned-singer said he did not receive the news until Wednesday morning when he touched down in L.A. "We was just landing and everybody turned their phones on and all the e-mails came in," he said. "Some people thought we was going to hijack the plane, we were going so crazy. ... We jumped up!"

Pain, who was at "Jimmy Kimmel Live" rehearsing for a performance, said he took advantage of being in Hollywood and had a meeting with 20th Century Fox about doing a movie. He wants to act as well as get into directing and producing. "I try to switch it every now and then," he laughed. "The grind don't stop. ... I'm trying to get different kinds of money."

Pain's main source of income comes from music, though. He has production, writing and guest appearance work coming on new albums by Usher, Chris Brown, Britney Spears ("I think I have one of her singles," he said) and Kanye West, to name just a few. His collaboration with Fabolous, "Baby Don't Go," has also been talked about as the next single from Fab's just-released From Nothin' to Somethin'. The next video from Epiphany will be "Bartender," featuring Akon.

"It's pretty much on how a lot of girls be trying to holler at me at the club, but the only interesting person, or the person I want to talk to, is the bartender," he said of the clip's concept. "Everybody else is on some 'I'm already drunk' sh--. Can't even hold an intelligent conversation. The bartender is already cool. She's heard every line, so she doesn't have to worry about you spitting game to her. It's showing how she's just interesting."

Pain, who's signed to Jive through Akon's Konvict Music imprint, said when 'Kon called to congratulate him on Wednesday, they discussed doing a whole album together soon. "It is definitely going to be a Konvict album," T-Pain said. "The whole family, but it will be produced and written by T-Pain and Akon."

This summer, Pain said to check for him on the Screamfest '07 tour with T.I. and Ciara, and later this year, he said he's already been tapped to open on Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour.

This report is provided by MTV News