Bury The Animosity Over Jay-Z's DOA

I remember sitting in my cubicle at work and the girl next to me peeped over and said "I just sent you that new DOA son!!". So I checked my inbox, watched, listened as Jay-Z performed this CRAZY song talking about killing Autotune with T-Pain on the stage. I was left with my arms in the air in victory because I had been waiting on this. I didn't know it was going to come in this form. Immediately, I sent it to the girl next to me, thought to myself "there are some people who won't be able to release their next single" and called my people in Newark to see what they thought while my supervisor is wondering what in the hell is so exciting. And yes, it was in that order.

As you may or may not know, for the past few weeks there have been grumblings, small rants, side looks and downright anger over Jay-Z's new single DOA (Death of Autotune). For those who don't know, it's a program used in the studio to enhance and alter vocal performances made popular by T-Pain. T-Pain was and is wildly sucessful and often criticized for the use of the program. It's his thing and I'm not personally mad at it because he brought something original to Hip-Hop which alot of Hip-Hop "purists" claim is missing. He was obviously was not the first to use a vocoder for recording. Artist like Roger Troutman of Zapp, Teddy Riley, and rocker Peter Frampton were using the technique decades ago. To be frank, DJ Quick got busy with it on his West Coast Funk jams. So, the style has been around for a while but never used in the capacity that T-Pain has used and dominated it.

With the history lesson behind us, since T-Pain has popularized the sound there have been followers of the style that would resemble an Old West cattle drive. It's funny that with all of the biters only a small few that have been sucessful. Snoop had a jam with "Sensual Seduction" which was produced by ATL's Shawty Redd who had a stripper anthem of his own using a vocoder effect ("Drifter") which Snoop shouted out in his song. But Kanye West and Lil' Wayne have killed it with the approval of and collaboration with T-Pain which to me is righteous because in this age this IS his sound. Not to say that I've totally enjoyed every effort put forth by the Ye and Wayne using it but , they did do right by the style and had the blessing of the owner which is honorable. No knock against either one of them but, I tend to like it when they spit the heat that makes me believe that they are two of they best that there are right now and for a while in future. The problem that has arisen is too many people bought the cookbook for the same recipe. I'm not the one too be stuck on old school Hip-Hop so much that everthing has to sound like everthing before 1995. However, two points of that arguement that comes up are: originality and lyrical death to the biters which I tend to agree with. This is exactly what Jay is saying in this song and it's about time somebody turned up the heat and applied a suffocating full-court pressure to cough up the lameness. The molestation of our ears must end with horrendously whack songs from cats with no talent and nothing to say. But on top of that, they have audacity to present it to the public as if this is something that anyone needs to listen to ever in life. And DJ's playing it is like throwing away the rape kit.

If T-Pain can join Jay-Z on stage in New York for the debut of the song, no one should have anything to say except "Damn! I need to find a new cookbook!". Autotune has become a crutch as well as a henderence on creativity. The thought process has been reduced to "What is the sound that's poppin' and how can I re-create it?". I enjoy samples and fitting one liners that are bitten but, cleverly used. Complete style and technique being used without a mixtape being involved is a crime punishable by a 21 microphone salute to the chest area. The offended are not ready to come up with their own and it seems as if Jay has deeply wounded them and totally knocked, or should I say manhandled them off of their square.

There are avid Jay-Z loyalists. Ask me am I one? No. I simply believe pound for pound he is about THE best that has ever done it but I will save that for a later conversation. By me stating this, I want to dead the thought that this a pro Jay-Z session. Absolutely not. Simply stated, "Dude got busy on that isht". I whole-heartedly share his sentiments on the song. I would love for Rappers and or MC's to just spit rhymes and chill-out with all of the lollygag singing. It's cool to express what you need to but let's not take it overboard. Trey Songs, Neo, and other male vocalists do an excellent job fulfilling the ladies needs. If you break down the song he goes hard from beginning to end. Lines like "My raps don't have melodies, this should make jackers wanna go and commit felonies" and " I know we facing a recession but the music y'all makin' gonna make it a great depression". What??!! It's more than the lyrics. The concept and the track by Chicago bred NO I.D. make it a much needed Hip Hop gem. Jay has done his job of sending cats back to the kitchen and breaking monotonous whackness. And to that, I say THANK YOU Jay-Z. Feel free to express your thoughts and tell everyone you know to join us.