Don’t look for this one in an iPod commercial though, because as Entertainment Weekly points out, “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” is a “manifesto” directed at “any number of rappers who have spent the last year or so whining into a robot-voice effect instead of actually rapping.”
Although it definitely doesn’t have Top 40 hit written all over it, if you’re a fan of the genre, you’ll appreciate Jay-Z’s call to return to the basics (even if you’re not, be thankful somebody’s taking on Auto-Tune).
Ironically, the track was co-produced by Kanye West, who – along with Lil Wayne and T-Pain – is guilty of helping to propagate the trend.
I only wish Jay had included all the other artists who find it necessary to employ the effect, like The Pussycat Dolls or Black Eyed Peas, who used it on their recent single “Boom Boom Pow.”
The Blueprint3 is scheduled to drop September 11, eight years to the day when the first Blueprint album was released. Although the project was overshadowed by the terrorist attacks on NYC and Washington, D.C., it eventually climbed its way to the top of the charts and sold 2 million copies.
The new disc will be Jay-Z’s first release since leaving Def Jam Records and will be distributed by Roc Nation, the imprint he recently started with Live Nation, via Atlantic Records.