I’ve gotten a lot of feedback on Facebook, Twitter, and in the comment section about my recent criticism of the whole “D.O.A.” fad right now. Let me break it down one last time.
Like other hip hop junkies, I tuned in to Hot 97 for the world premiere of of Jay-Z’s new song:
Overall I liked the song, but Hot 97 proved that Jay cannot kill autotune. In fact, Hot 97 played a song with autotune (”Every Girl”) two songs after “Death Of Autotune.” Then two songs after Lil Wayne and Drake’s sing-a-long, they throw on that Webstar/Jim Jones song, which also relies on heavy autotune. (Original Post)
Then as a few days went by and Jay-Z started doing press for the song. He told MTV that Kanye, T-Pain, and Lil Wayne get a pass because they use AutoTune artistically.
First of all, of course T-Pain deserves a pass. He started the whole autotune movement back in 2005 with Rappa Ternt Sanga. But Wayne? C’mon, Jay! Lil Wayne isn’t being any more “artistic” in his use of autotune than DJ Webstar. At the end of the day, if people like the song (“Dancin’ On Me”) then they like the song. Why hate and try to interfere with them making money to feed their families, but then give your millionaire-friends a pass? (Original Post)
After watching Jay-Z’s performance at the BET Awards I had enough.
1. The song is about unoriginality in hip hop, right? Cool. I’m cool with that. Here’s the problem: “D.O.A.” is an unoriginal song. The hook is from the famous Steam song that everybody in America knows (assuming they’ve been to a high school sporting event) and Jay even manages to rip a couple lines from Biggie’s rhyme book.
Side Note: If you’re interested, here’s what No I.D. sampled to make the beat; not to say that sampling a song for the beat is unoriginal. I just think it’s cool to hear the original songs that inspire beats. Am I hip hop nerd or what?
2. I’ve been blown away by the number of people who don’t see “D.O.A.” for what it is…a marketing ploy. Hov has used similar strategies in the past. Look at it like this: Jay-Z is one of the best to ever do it, but he’s 40. That doesn’t mean he can’t make good music, but Jay knows better than anyone that in order for him to still be relevant in today’s hip hop game make money selling music then he needs to distinguish himself from everybody else. So what does he do? He crafts a song about how autotune is getting over-used in hip hop music. It gets everybody talking because there’s so many artists currently using it. Jay-Z’s name gets mentioned in all their interviews (“How do you feel about Jay-Z’s “D.O.A.?”) and so on and so forth. Hell, I even asked rappers such as Big Sean and Juelz Santana “D.O.A.” related questions. Why? Because when one of the most successful rappers makes a song about the plug-in of choice used in many recent hits, it’s a conversation piece. If you think Jay-Z’s ultimate goal with “D.O.A.” is to improve hip hop, then you’re kidding yourself. He wants to make money. Ask Chuck D:
You know something who ever made this blog can go fuck them self they must not no about rap I hate fagget ass computer nerds always trying to think they know everything all ya nigs r a bunch of haters. Auto-tune was gay period! All the pepele with auto-tune all they are are ringtone rappers. So whoever wrote this fuck you n go to hell!!!!!
^ lol you mad?
While you made some good points, you have to realize that he’s not entirely wrong. Auto-Tune IS getting old and over-used (gated reverb, anybody?). In the pre-AT hip hop world, if a rapper wanted to sing on a track and not look like a clown, he actually had to have some sort of ability to carry a tune. Now, just about anybody can pick up a microphone and sound like Cher.
Another point worth mentioning is that the robotic sound that is all over pitch-corrected vocals in hip hop was NOT the original purpose of AutoTune or any other pitch correction software. It was intended to fix minor imperfections in vocal performances to save time in the studio while still retaining the original vocal qualities. The robotic sound should only appear in extreme cases where a vocal can’t be re-recorded but the note was extremely off the scale.
While I’m a HUGE Jay-Z fan, I think he’s barking up the wrong tree here. He needs to be more specific, and point out that it’s not pitch correction killing hip hop, it’s the ABUSE of pitch correction that’s killing hip hop. It’s introducing too much singing in rap music.
I agree with him for giving Kanye a pass, because he actually tried something completely different: he made a very emotional album where he didn’t rap any at all, and for the most part, he didn’t rely solely on Auto-Tune to save him (he can kinda carry a tune). That dude put out an entire album of him just singing, and his entire career before that was just rapping. But then, he did the smart thing, and went back to rapping without needing Auto-Tune on every single song, and he’s made some killer collabo tracks since then (shout out to Keri Hilson for getting him on “Knock You Down”).
I also completely agree about the T-Pain thing, because…well…T-Pain started this thing, and he really can sing. What most people don’t realize is that he’s using it to self-harmonize, which makes his songs sound fuller, and probably saves him a boatload of time recording backing tracks in the studio. I have no doubt that he can deliver a rock solid vocal performance without any pitch correction (remember his appearance on Flo Rida’s “Low” a while back?).
I’m really thrown by the Weezy part though. The only proof Wayne has ever given me that he can sing was on that sing-song chorus for “Hustler Musik” back in the C2 era. I think that was more of an ass-saving anti-beef thing that Jay threw in at the last second.
Anyways, in MY humble opinion (anybody can respond and let me know if I’m wrong about this, I’m open to stuff like that):
I genuinely think that pitch correction abuse has gone too far now.
I remember listening to 50’s “Get Rich Or Die Tryin’” back in ‘03 and singing along with Fif’ on those sing-song choruses he’s so good at. I realized that he wasn’t trying to come across as a singer, though: he was trying to add subtle melody to his choruses.
Another few good examples are Chamillionaire, Tech N9ne, and T.I. Those guys do some singing here and there, but it’s not because they think they’re R&B singers, it’s because they want to perform their own choruses, and they have a good enough voice to do it decently. Even Jeezy sings on his own choruses every now and then (“My Hood”, “Get Allot”, and “Put On”).
None of those guys use Auto-tune because they know it makes them sound like a robot, and they don’t really need it to carry a tune and get their point across in their songs.
Another huge NEWS FLASH here: 75-80% of the people using Auto-Tune in the game now DON’T NEED IT! For instance, what the heck is Jamie Foxx doing with AT on his new album?! He’s one of the best singers IN the game! And what about The-Dream?!
Some of these dudes need to wake up and stop letting the game control their sound and start letting their sound control the game!
Rappers need to get back to rapping, singers need to get back to singing, and we need to let this Auto-Tune effect die out. In a decade, I really doubt that anybody is going to look back on half of these pitch-correction-heavy songs and think “That was a good idea.”
Ask Chuck D!! WTF! Chuck D? That’s the closing argument ask Chuck D!? lol?
One could argue that D.O.A is not the L.a.m.est thing around, but as a blogger if you say Jay-z is lame, you get a lot more hits on your… I think you see where I’m going!
I agree though never in a millenia should Weeezy get a pass!
As for the Biggie biting – He’s only bigging up his brother! He’s big enough to do it!
DOA!