Last night, the Masked Singer revealed a clue that may confirm the identity of the Monster. Find out what it's all about, here.
Last night's episode of the Masked Singer (Episode 8) was fast paced and intense as the final five performers sang for a spot in next week's Finale. At the end of the evening, both the Lion (Rumer Willis) and the Rabbit (Joey Fatone) waved goodbye to the crowd after being voted off the show. But the unmasking of these two singers wasn't the only revealing information found on last night's show. Beneath in the glitz and glitter of episode 8 lay a significant clue about the Monster, which may help nail down his identity.
Up to this point, the internet has held onto a handful of favorite guesses for the Monster's identity — the most popular being Jamie Foxx , T-Pain and Cee-Lo Green. While we've been leaning toward one performer in particular, there was just enough reasonable doubt to keep us from jumping fully onboard. A key clue from last nights show, however, turned out to be just the thing we needed to remove remaining doubt.
As with every episode, a video clip was shown before the Monster's performance, giving insight to who he might be. The clues had some familiar lines about "the game" turning on him, being vilified for "sounding like a ringtone" and making the comeback that he's "wanted for a decade." Besides replaying these old tracks, the Monster offered a bit of personal information about himself that, when taken with other clues offered, clears out all the competition. When asks to tell a truth about himself, the Monster replied,
"I'm a father, husband, son, brother and more than anything, a person."
Well, right off the bat this clue knocks out competitorJamie Foxx. Though Foxx has a pair of daughters, two sisters and obviously a mom and dad, the actor and singer has never been married.
Next up is Cee-Lo Green. While Green does fit the profile for "father, husband, son, brother" he falls short in some important ways. During Episode 1, the Monster revealed his height is 5'8". Then during Episode 7, he revealed that his shoe size was a 12. While we couldn't find Cee-Lo's shoe size online, his height takes him out of the running as he stands 5'6", two inches shy of the Monster's height.
This of course leaves us with T-Pain as our final contender. Does T-Pain have a wife? Check. Kids? Check. Siblings? Check. Parents? Obvi.
What about the shoe size? Though not officially confirmed, Bright Idea Design Inc.'s Omar Bailey offered some insight to T-Pain's shoe size. Bailey told FootWear News that he'd crafted T-Pain's shoes for the 2008 Grammy Awards. Though Bailey couldn't remember exactly what T-Pain's size shoe was, he said he thought it was between a 10.5 and a 12.
While these clues are pretty compelling, many skeptics may want additional proof of the Monster's identity. For us, these are the clues that most point to T-Pain as the Monster.
Teddy's Top Hat and Grill - throughout the course of the season, many of the Monster's video clues featured three very specific items — a teddy bear, top hat and yellow grille. T-Pain is known for his iconic yellow diamond grill and top hat combo. He's also frequently known by his alias " Teddy Pain," a homage to fellow R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass.
Auto-Tune, Mixtapes and Comebacks - The Monster has made multiple references to auto-tuning in video clue clips as well as this week's clue about sounding like a ringtone. Despite being a talented artist, T-Pain became infamous for using auto-tune which pretty much killed his career. In 2009 (one decade ago) the drama over his auto-tune use kicked off after Jay Z released a hit single called "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)." The song aimed to draw a clear line in the sand between "real" hip-hop and the poppy soft stuff T-Pain was pushing. Every since his auto-tune debacle, T-Pain has released a number of mixtapes, aimed at proving who the artist is inside.
Headsets and Games - The Monster has made numerous references to "the game" and getting back into the swing of things. In episode six, the singer offered a headset as a clue to his identity saying "I make my best calls on this headset." T-Pain's love of video games is pretty widely known and in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, the artist revealed that gaming plays a big role his work. When asked if he games in the studio the singer replied,
"Oh yeah. I have my laptop and my gaming sessions in the studio. I use it to write. A lot of people don't understand; they just feel like I'm in the studio 'playing games.' But it's kinda therapeutic. To be in the studio, have your mind free and playing games, not thinking about the song that you're about to make. I'll tell the producer, 'Play this beat while I'm playing this game,' and I'll have a song in like 10 minutes."
Who do you think is behind the Monster Mask? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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