Vibe.com writer's take on Jay-Z's "Death of Auto-tune"

I HEARD THE RECORD... AND I FEEL HOV ON THIS ONE.... HERE IS THE PIECE
Jay-Z's "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)": What Does It All Mean?
Posted 06/06/2009 at 1:20 AM | 1 comment/s

Jay-Z: "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" (Produced by No I.D. & Kanye West)
from the forthcoming Blueprint 3
(Props to LowKey)




It's hot, but it's bad form. Jay-Z, who carries an enormous amount of influence in some rap circles, and almost none in others (ahem, West Coast), has made a trend record about a trend. His attempt to murder the preponderance of rappers (and singers, too?) using Auto-Tune technology to alter their voices is simultaneously canny and crotchety. It's a dose of cultural criticism. And it's a dive deep down the wormhole of what music should and should not sound like. Dangerous stuff. Made worse by a mildly smug interview he gave to a panting Funkmaster Flew two hours after the song debuted on WQHT-FM Hot 97 tonight. During the interview he absolves T-Pain, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne (with a thoughtful assist to the late Stephen "Static/Major" Garrett) for their use of Auto-Tune under the auspices of "good melody." That bit of politicking is perhaps the worst thing that's come from the song so far. (Jay, it should be noted, jumped on an excellent remix of DJ Khaled's T-Pain-featuring "Go Hard" last year. Pain uses Auto-Tune on the song.)

Whenever the term "Auto-Tune" is raised to any reasonable music fan, the first three names that come up? T-Pain, Kanye, Wayne, who have all had major success with it. But the absolution leaves very few targets out there for Jay to shoot down. Perhaps the biggest is producer Ron Browz, who's had a sort of career reinvention thanks to the technology, recently crafting hits for Busta Rhymes, Jim Jones and lately DJ Webstar, whose "Dancing On Me" is, ironically, a Hot 97 staple these days--it played just four songs after the Jay-Z conniption ended. So Jay-Z took a shot at Ron Browz's piddling career. Tough guy!

It's a strange moment for Jay, who isn't at a crossroads (though many will say he is--no one is better at the pomposity of hype than S. Carter), but he is about to release his first album without Def Jam's help. Jay sounds relieved to finally be released from his contract after nearly 13 years--he says he "bought his album back," perhaps for a cool $5 million. (Doug Morris won.) He once lorded over Def Jam as label president, installing friends and friendlies in power positions, forming bonds and occasionally helping turn kids into pop stars (Rihanna, Ne-Yo) while there. But since he left, his people, for the most part, went with him. So why engender for strangers? Hov has to start anew now with Atlantic for this one off album (and his ex-people, like former Def Jam power players Lyor Cohen, Kevin Liles, Julie Greenwald, Mike Kyser--you get the point--are his people again). And then, we'll see. But to return, after a surprisingly long layoff--his last album was released in November 2007, and that was a rush job--with a song indicting the likes of Ron Browz is perhaps not the game-changer many will tout it.

So, about the song. Right. Turns out it's quite good. Chicago production legend and Kanye mentor No I.D. co-produced it--notable because No I.D. produced the two best songs on Jay-Z's last album, 2007's American Gangster in "Success" and "Fallin'." (Also worth noting: He handled Jay's "All Around the World," a full-bodied soul jam from the much-maligned Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse.) "D.O.A." is closest to "Success," just replace the rollicking organ from that song with a clarion-toned clarinet and stabbing electric guitar line that sounds eerily similar to Saigon's failed single, "C'mon Baby," which was produced by longtime Jay producer, Just Blaze and released by, um, Atlantic. The Venn diagrams are always thrashing. The live, clattering snare drums on the song, while impressive, are also awfully similar to "Success." Jay's flow feels, dare I say, a little sloppy. Maybe because his voice hasn't been corrected in any way? I say that not as a takedown--the looseness of the verses, as is customary for Hova, is likely a product of being pre-scripted in his head, never on paper. But because of that it feels less like a cohesive statement than a series of sharp zingers: "This ain't for Z100/Ye told me to kill y'all to keep it 100"; "Get somebody from BMF to talk on this/Get this to a blood, let a crip walk on it" and most tellingly "This is not a no. 1 record." At no point does it ever become clear WHY Auto-Tune needs to die, or is already dead. Is it because singing is feminine? Or because the music is becoming increasingly worse--or worse than that, less melodic? Because it's a gimmick and gimmicks are merely that? Maybe it's not for Jay-Z to say. Surely people across the country who dialed up Hot 97 via the web, or salivating New Yorkers listening terrestrially (myself wholeheartedly included) heard the strains of Young Money's "Every Girl," Drake's "Best I Ever Had," and "Dancing On Me" just minutes (!) after Jay "killed" Auto-Tune. It was a cruel irony for anyone buying the pitch: You can't kill the immortal. Auto-Tune (and various pitch-shifting technologies) have been around for ages. They're not going anywhere because Jay-Z says so.