Its funny, because T-Pain just commercialized it. Autotune was being used like that before his time.
I saw an interview, where he was like "I Want My Money", directing that to anyone who is using the effect on their tracks. The lady interveiwing was like, "So your saying anyone using this effect owes you money? No one else can use autotune?" Then he says the same thing again. "I want my money."
Basically, he doesn't mean it literally, just that "He is the one that brought it to the table."
Which isn't the case, of course.
I will see if I can find the link to the video interview.
Lil Wayne came out wit the song Lolipop. When it first came up, the Autotune was real jumpy. Sounded like crap. The one you hear on the radio now, remixed, sounds smoother.
There are other ways.
Best ways-Hardware-TC Helicon Hardware units like the discontinued VoiceOne
and the current ones.
Then there are software-Autotune-Yamaha Pitchfix....