Death of Autotune…Really Hov??

From vibe

So Hov dropped the bomb (D.O.A. – Death of Autone) last Friday and cats have been buzzing nationwide. I like the song and I felt like something of this magnitude had to be done. As he explained on The Angie Martinez show Monday he’s not saying cats like T-Pain are wack. Instead, he’s challenging artists to try something new and innovative with their work: namely their melodies.

Still you have to wonder if Jay is as much of a threat as he was, say even five years ago, to people’s careers. A lot of heads make their daily bread on cranking the plugin up to 11. Plus it’s not like the radio and DJ’s have suddenly stopped playing Ron Browz’s and DJ Webstar’s records.

When Jay took out Prodigy he didn’t just screw up his mainstream career, he shut out Mobb Deep altogether. Nas’s career was in jeopardy after “The Takeover.” Thankfully he’s one of the best to do it. Not only did he dodge that bullet, he landed some shots of his own with “Ether.”

Even though Ether is a classic battle track (and yes Nas beat Hov) it’s claim to fame wass it’s biting lyrics: not Etherboy’s work behind the boards. The Takeover beat was better in every way. Still the two were able to be grown men and squash whatever beef they had. Also it goes to show that it took a legend to stand up to Gray Hova.

jay-z

Now don’t get it twisted. Hov is definitely relevant and still rhymes circles around most rappers. With that said one has to question if this record is capable of striking fear into the hearts of your favorite Auto-Crooner. I mean he does have a point. Auto-tune is overused and i’d be ecstatic if people stopped using as much. Plus it’s not like people aren’t receptive to D.O.A. I heard he shut down Summer Jam when he performed the song on stage. I also heard T Pain made his way on stage mid performace which Jay-Z said was “pretty awkward.”

Perhaps I’m jumping the gun. The song isn’t even a week old. Auto-Tuners are still eatin’ but DOA is new in the streets. Let’s see who’ll outlast who. If anything DOA is a great street single, No ID went in on the beat and I actually want to hear more from BP3. I just hope this track doesn’t leave our memory banks like Jockin’ Jay-Z before it. If so we’ll be back to the usual plugin melodies as if nothing happened. I don’t know about you but I’d love to move on from the auto-tune era right about now.