Jay-Z – “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”

Written by Rizoh. Posted in Music

• Anonymous

  jay needs to sit his old ass down somewhere. it’s 2009.. not 1999. and 30 is still not the new 20; music is art… just like when an artist throws a bunch of random shit on a canvas and calls it a masterpiece and people marvel at it and pay millions of dollars for it its really the same if you think about it. if you dont like that shit no one is forcing you to listen to it. YOU ARE NOT slaves to music. I love all types of music even alot of jays old stuff but he’s a fuckin hypocrite for this one. must be a diss song towards kanye.

• BXbully34

  Jay-Z is not telling rappers are wack for singing on songs, He just sayin they need to get back to rap nd stop trying to sing all the time. It seems like rappers are only in it for the money now instead of there hearts thats y even though kanye used the autotune he still respected. Jay-Z,Nas,Jadakiss,nd Kanye been the realist rappers from the 90s to now. i agree with everything they say!!

• REEM MASTER

  lOOK PEOPLE OF THIS FORUM JAY IS NOT SAYIN BECAUSE HE SAID SO AUTO-TUNE IS DEAD HE IS SAYIN THAT WEN IT BECOMES A GIMMICK THATS WEN ITS WACK WEN EVEYBODY IS DOIN IT CAUSE ITS THA THING TO DO. SOMEBODY ON HERE SAID KANYE MADE A RECORD DISSIN HIMSELF NOT TRU THERE WERE SONGS ON TB3 THAT HAD AUTO-TUNE AND KANYE WENT IN A REDID THEM AND THEY STILL SOUND GREAT T-PAIN HAS NO PROBLEM WIT THIS SONG NIETHER DOES WEEZY HE SHOUTED THEM ALL OUT ITS JUST SOMETHING THAT HAS GOTTEN OLD AND ITS NOT EXTREMLY HOT ANYMORE.AND 808′S WAS SOMETHING HE JUST WANTED TO EXPLORE AS AN ARTIST IT WAS A TIME WEN HIS MOM DIED AND HE SPLIT FROM ALEXA JUST LIKE WEEZY DID A ROCK TRACK I LIKE SOME AUTO-TUNE SONGS BUT IT IS GETTING OUT OF HAND SOMETHINGS HAVE THERE TIME AND GO AND SOMETHINGS ARE FOREVA WIT JAY AND EMENIM COMIN BACK OUT THERE IS FRESH AIR BEING BREATHED INTO RAP MUSIC AND HIP-HOP AS A WHOLE

• Anonymous

  CHURCH….. your comments make no sense. JAY is an Icon in HIP HOP. Now and Forever. That’s just a Fact!

• Anonymous

  Jay is not saying EVERYONE stop using it. He is just saying that it’s Freaking Overused.

  Who else didn’t know that “Blame it on the Alchohol” was Jamie Fox until you read it or heard it somewhere.

  it’s was FUN but now it’s over

  Jay-Z…… One of the greates, if not THE GREATES.

• Dollar Signs

  this song is tough

• Dollar Signs

  this song is tough

• Anonymous

  Dude, this is Jigga, he can say whatever he wants

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• Anonymous

  Jay-Z is THE greatest of ALL time!

• Jesse ak.a Obama Jr

  without auto tunes who would u turn 2..haha it should b jay z auto shit some of yall rappers sound like him anyway in yall songs b original and stop boppin

• VintageHunter

  About time someone made a track out against wack Auto-Tune. Damn,

  “I might send this as a mixtaoe to weezy” ?

  Damn, diss’em all Jay!

  You can take them. Show them who is better! Old School or New School!

• Anonymous

  for everyone out there who keeps saying hip hop is dieing and everyone is puttin out pop/ R+B bullshit, ya’ll arnt looking or listening hard enough: asher roth is showin mad potential, knaye is yet to put out nething below par, the dream is by far the best R+B singer out( 2 for 2 hot albums), n im in too much of a rush to list nething more. peace p.s.- point being STOP SAYING HIP HOP IS DEAD TRUE TALENT WILL PREVAIL!

• Anonymous

  for all you kanye haters
  kanye no longer uses autotune and hasnt for months. Jay also says in the song that ye (kanye) told him to kill it. Kanye’s new album will not be in autotune. For the record I thought 808′s and Heartbreak was a very good album because it had substance. He also didnt call it a rap album he classified it as pop.

  Im tired of hearing lil wayne, ron brownz and t-pain “rapping” about the same shit over and over half of which doesnt make any fuckin sense.

  Jay-Z said in an interview that this song was directed at up and coming artists using autotune as a gimmick to become popular. He said this wasnt intended as a diss to kanye or t-pain.
  For the record the track was produced by No ID; not kanye.

• Edtech

  Its about time someone had the courage to diss a piece of software in the HipHop game, autotunes is raps public enemy #1, its been abused to the point of trashing artist who dare use it, aka Weezy, Kanye, T pain, just to name a few. Imho, autotunes has no place in something like Rap/HipHop genre, leave all that robotic crap to Dance, Rave or Electronica music. Raps has always been all about the spoken word. I do have to agree that the beat is complete garbage, don’t understand how Jay-z got convinced that this is the anthem for killing autotunes because lyrically, he put an end to robotic voices in HipHop, WELL DONE JAY, U STILL THE MAN REGARDLESS.

• eddiexxx

  I have to agree with “Edtech” somewhat, the beat for “DOA” was a bit lame, you recognize when a rap beat hits you hard and this didn’t do it for me, somewhat losing me in the process. As for the lyrical content, Jay-z murdered Antares, basically saying, enough with all the vocal gimmicks in Hip Hop, I definitely know now that their are a bunch of idiot producers going back to the drawing board as we speak as a result of this.

  By the way, I never liked the idea of auto tunes in Rap, I’m amaze it got this far, maybe we’ll see more creativity and credibility back in Rap. The Message is clear.

• BXBully34

  ITS A SHAME DAT HOVA IS STILL THE HARDEST RAPPER OUT!!! ALL YALL WEZZY FANS NEED TO TELL HIM TO STEP HIS GAME UP!! “JUS GET VIOLENT” ITS DA ROC!!!!

• Nature

  Finally, someone has got down on these bullshit fake rappers. T-pain is a joke and Wayne claim to fame is insane. He claims to be the best but without auto-voice he’s am average rapper at best. He trying to claim fame over the legend of hip-hop. Pussy, you ain’t shit I bet you see me on the street and you’d run quick.

• Anonymous

  For those who hatin,
  1) you can’t really argue that autotune’s been over used.
  2) When jay says hes the hardest right now, it’s not something he’s proud of, he wishes there were people not trying to fill the (silence) which can be a good thing with mind dragging computer sounds.
  3) jay may act like hes trying to be relevant, but if you think he couldn’t make a hit right now, you don’t know him.

• Anonymous

  First of all I can’t believe ya’ll mutha fuckers hatin on this man. He is a fucking legend all this fake ass dance music dats being played this ain’t rap. Ya’ll little ass children need to go listen to hurrican chris and all dat other shit & stay in school

• BLACKOUT 2

  I’m pretty sure redman beat jay-s to the cut making fu of auto tune on blackout! 2. The songs named City light.

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• THADUDUE

  LOOK THIS IS OKAY……PEOPLE GONNA STOP USING IT FOR A LIL BUT ND THEN THEIR GONNA BE RIGHT BACK AT IT…….JAY NEEDS TO SIT DOWN, HE SHOULD HAVE STAYED RETIRED FOR THIS ONE ND HE ONE OF MY FAVS……BUT PEOPLE ACTUALLY MAKE GOOD MUSIC WITH AUTO TUNE THEY JUST DON’T NEED TO OVER DO IT……..

• BABA NAIJA

  THANK YOU FOR REAL HIP HOP!!!!!! ALL YOU KIDS OUT THERE THIS IS REAL HIP HOP!!!!!! BIG UP TO THE TRI STATE AREA. (RED, METHOD, WU, PLEASE LETS EDUCATE)
  I NEEDED THIS, I BELIEVE AGAIN!!

• JAY-Z HATER

  he just mad cuz his face look like a camals ass,damn his lips are big,u could land a goddman air plane of thoes mutha fuckas…..ewww…

• kjlfkjfas

  why does he compliment lil wayne when lil wayne uses auto-tune on most of his new songs?

• 9/11/09

  I was reading throgh some of the bullshit people was saying and I’m like wow…. Where have some of these people been for the last past couple years to say anything bad about Jay is crazy clearly people can not see what he has done for rap. When Big and Pac died we was listening to all kind of bullshit I’m not going to call out no one on there craft but rap music has gone commercial you have wendy’s commercials using that auto tune bullshit. what happen to real rap music not the sing along rap songs. I mean make your money but all you silly ass people buying it and supporting it listen to what there saying and not the hook or the beat. The lyrics the artist is saying. 9/11/09 for all the real hip hop fans R.I.P King of Pop

• Charlie Hustle

  I glad someone had the Balls to say something about auto tunes and Raps current condition. Who better to end this Bull sh** other than the Greatest! Rap has become watered down. I see why Jay can’t retired he doesn’t want to hand the game over to these weak ass Rappers. Check out some Real Sh**. Ya Dig!! http://www.reverbnation.com/charliehustle34

• EL

  The south ruined Hip Hop. We all know this. That’s coming from a Memphis cat. People are just scared to say it cause nobody wants to be called a “hater”. And yeah, all you young dudes is soft. Jay, you should have saved the last two comeback albums and just dropped something like this. I would have had more respect for you. Although I feel you on it, you come off life a angry old guy.

• sociopath

  Jay-Z killed it on this one. I’m tired of all this “new school” rap nonsense. Soulja Boy, Drake, Maino, Papoose, Ron Browz, etc. These lames are garbage. How can kids even listen to this crap? The South didn’t ruin hip hop. Andre 3000, TI, Ludacris, Young Jeezy, and “Mixtape” Wayne all kept hip hop afloat while the rest of rap was releasing nothing. Kanye hasn’t been great since College Dropout. Only “new school” cat I like is Lupe Fiasco, he actually raps. Death to Autotune and ringtone rap (MIMS)!

• Smoov

  Respect to all opinions, but personally many of you all are just haters. Who are you to say the state of hip hop or say the South killed hip hop. There was a time where East Coast, West Coast artist enjoyed the spotlight. Much respect to artists that truly left a stain on hip hop. Pac, Biggie, Outkast, Scareface, Nas, Jay Z, Ice Cube, Snoop, Eightball & MJG, Tribe Called Quest, and many others. I am not one to judge others craft or criticize their location. Respect the game and stop referencing a city, state, or area. There was a time when people hated Pac because he claimed West Coast and Biggie because he represented the east coast. Jay Z emerged after Pac’s and Big’s success and many of you wouldn’t have know who the F@#$ Jay Z was if Pac or Big was alive. Yes, Jay has used Big’s lyrics from time to time, but he sold his sh!t. Same to those using Autotune. Who are you to criticize anyone? Most artists out copied or imitated somebody to find their way in the industry. At one time, everybody jump on the South’s bandwagon becaused they created killah beats and sold more albums. Other than Jay and 50, most NYC artists are broke as hell. There is nothing wrong with making your money. I’m not mad at Souljah Boy for making music appealing to kids of today, that sh!t ain’t for you. But, I saw alot of people jammin to his sh!t on the BET Awards (although I don’t care for it).

  Hip hop is a bunch of borrowed sh!t anyway. None of these artists wouldn’t be here if MJ, James Brown, Sam Cook, Parliment, Ohio Players, and others would have paved the way for them. I remember when people criticized rap altogether. While I have much respect for Jay, how can he critcize anyone. His last album came directly from a movie in which he portrayed himself as a gangster, he borrows lyrics, and his music went mainstream too. No he’s taking it bad to Brooklyn, the streets. He’s Mantattan and Jersey now. How can one person try to eliminated what sales. Most of you criticizing people ain’t buying sh!t anyway, or not directly. Your kids are buying the very ringtones that you are dissing.

  Death to the Autotune: No one said death to DJ’s scratching or rappers telling stories (Slick Rick, Dana Dane,EMPD)or death to the guitar that rockers use or death to the synthesizer or death to the 808, or death to the Newjack Swing. All I’m saying is let it dye on it’s own. As soon as the Autotune dies, something else will emerge. Just because Hip Hop isn’t what you are accustomed to, doesn’t mean it died. It just evolved and something else is emerging. Imagine if the O’Jays would have created a song called “Death to the turntable” would we have Hip Hop?

• Preach

  There is good rap out there you just need to look for it… Cunninlynguists, the roots, Jedi mind etc. The rapper that can really bring true rap back is Lupe, the guy has everything. I feel that autotune is something that could have once been good if only one person did it once and that was it, I’m sick of all these “rappers” out there today who all sound so alike I can’t even tell them apart. On DOA I felt Jay Z sounded like a cranky old guy but he makes a good point. There needs to be a turning point in hip hop sooner or later and he’s trying to kick start that movement.

• Booper

  yo for real im getting sick of people hating on Jay. He’s one of the most successful MC’s out of Brooklyn. He’s old as shit and still in the game killin it. I give him major props for that. And about this auto tune shit its wack now so many people are using it. Also i cant even listen to the radio anymore all that’s on it is that wack stankey leg song come on what is that and that booty doo, wtf man this is what hip hop is?? im signing out. peace

• TREAL

  YALL DUMBFUCKS JUST DONT KNOW SHIT ABOUT EVOLUTION. THINGS WILL ALWAYS CHANGE. YALL COMPLAININ ABOUT HIP HOP IS DEAD OR AUTOTUNE IS OVERUSED. SOONER OR LATER AUTOTUNE WILL DIE AND ANOTHER RAPPER WILL COME UP WITH A NEW SWAGG AND MAKE $$$ AND ANOTHER HUNGRY RAPPER WOULD SWAGGER JACK BUT AY, SALL BOUT THE MONEY. IF THERES PEOPLE TO BLAME, BLAME IT ON THE VIEWERS AND THE BUYERS. THEY THE ONES WHO’S BUYIN ALBUMS AND MAKIN THEM GREAT/WEAK RAPPERS RICH. WHATEVER SELLS GO. ERRBODY IS JUST TRYIN TO EAT. JAYZ COMIN OUT WITH A NEW ALBUM. OF COURSE HE’S GONNA MAKE A BUZZ AND HE DID. ITS A PUBLICITY STUNT. IT IS A MUSIC BUSINESS! SO STOP HATIN AND CRYIN AND GET URS… YA DIGG? THEN KEEP DIGGIN.

• Jordan

  this song is total bullshit jay-Z is a commercial piece of shit. The moment he says its not for itunes you look down and see its an exlusive single on iTunes, in the top ten, heavily endorsed, and its also not even 99 fucking cents. He also shows his hypocritical side when the beat is produced by Kanye who is one of the most avid users of autotune. Im not saying that autotune is great but if it was gonna go down it shoulda been hit by a real rapper not Jay-Z’s fake ass.

• BJ

  Jay-Z can kiss my black a** i hate him and his fake A** wife too y u hatin wat u aint makin money off ya think everybody supposed to look up 2 u 4 wat u aint Neve did SH*t 4 nobdy i hate all ya songs day all stupid n all yo cd’s so wat u rich dat dont u got da rite to take aways ppls money u got enuf so stay out/off ppls business and records and bank accounts yo song D>O>A is stupid jus like beyonce single ladies and ego stupid stupid stupid jamie foxx had da numda 1 song n tpain sho makin money u jus hatin cus u aint u actually need autotune cus u cant a damn note u sound worse den terence howard tryna sing n ya know he cant sing so F**K jay z n beyonce fake A** too how da hell u gon a sing a religioius song on da BET Awards w/ no Fu*Kin clothes u should be ashamed im glad ya mama slapped u she need a reality check dats y all ya naps was shoin wen u was performin hahahahaha peace

• http://my.rawkus.com/xn/detail/u_0mi7j3gl32qb0 zeus1987

  I read some of the other comments regarding how hov shouldn’t hate or how he should stayed retired and i became disgusted. Jay-Z is the king of rap so whatever he says should be respected. He’s a man who is a natural born leader. He makes the music he wants. He doesn’t make music that’s currently hot, he doesn’t give in to A&R demands, he doesn’t sacrifice the integrity of his music just to make money. You know, there’s a reason why people say hip-hop is dead or it’s dying, it’s cause Jay-Z left and after that the status quo dropped drastically. Everyone got on TI’s and Lil Wayne’s dick. “In the absence of the truth, BullSh** will arise”.

• smlbanygurl

  jay-z needs to sit his ass down somewhere, if you’ve made your money why knock someone else and ain’t he suppose to be retired when the hell is really going to do to do what the word retire means go sit down and have a baby and he doesn’t make hip hop if that was the case Run DMC and the rest of the older hip hop groups can come and shut him down because aren’t they like the grandfathers of the game….. so please sit your need a beef for the press ass down

• Joker

  Yeezy gets away wit it cuz he go hard wit the robo voice and weezy gets a jab cuz he do his thang aint always gud but dats an escuse…

• Louie

  Look….first; Let me tell you what 5 cd’s I currently got loaded in my Car. O.C – Jewels/Drake – DJ Famous mixtap/Organize Konfusion – Equinox/Jeru – the sun rises in the east/, and Rick Ross – deeper than Rap. So you kind of see where I’m at, first off, it’s just not the over use of Autotune that’s wack, the writing is wack…just Garbage!” If anyone out there knows about L.A’s the “Good life” of the 1990′s, would know that if were to get Rappers/Mc’s of today, and have them battle rappers from back then, It would look like a High school massacre…Come on now. A lot of you getting it twisted too with…the game is progressing, really, into what! Hop Hop??? Na, it ain’t hip hop, the list of artist above, that’s hip hop. The s**t that’s on radio, straight up! Gabage. I wouldn’t take “but a few of these cats, Drake being one of them” a quarter of these sokalled Rappers/Mc’s to a skunk fight. When Jay is talking about D.O.A…Damn right!!! Catz need to pay more attention to their pen and pad more than how much Autotune treatment their getting’. I’m not mad at Tpain for it, but remember…he ain’t no Mc, and if you think he is, I dare you to tell that to Talib Kweli…You might get spit on. Yes you can be a real Mc and make your money, Big/Pac/Hov/Nas/Jada/Jeezy, 1 album/T.I/Fugees/Kanye/Eminen/Mos Def/, Notice soulja Boy not in my list, get ya minds right people, just cause you can go to guitar center and buy Pro Tools , a mic, and Mpc…doesn’t mean you should. Have some pride…hip hops a Culture, not a chameleon. To clear it up, it’s not so much the beats/music, it’s the people on them…Jay Z’s a master as his craft, it don’t matter if it’s 93, 03, or 13, he’s always gonna be nice!!, you think it’s luck that he and Eminem fight for the most Hip hop records ever sold, “EVER”…that’s Skill baby!!!!! These rappers today can’t touch that, Like Jay Said, “you ain’t got your neck all froze with the same logo that you got sketched on your clothes……………………..Ni**a Please!!

• deeznuts

  Ya’ll dudes is funny as hell, Bj, you a idiot, what the f*ck does Jay z need to use autotune for in the first place, he aint no singer. Maf*ckaz like you with your opinions is the reason why Hip hop today is f*ckin’ trash..trash Ni**a!!!!! jamie foxx, the Bet awards, that dude had enough autotune to last 5 albums..Plastic! does anybody have any fuckin’ talent, “Jay z is fake”…so you think Tpain, soulja boy, the dream..etc is gonna have long careers like jay has had, come on dog, I even know you ain’t that stupid…give me 5 would be classic albums from the yr 2000 til now..then I’ll give you 10 classic albums from 1990 to 99..you don’t stand a chance kid!..
  AUTOTUNE is like a wheelchair, some Ni**gaz just can’t get around with it, if you a rapper with autotune on full blast….Your wack, straight up!…Illmatic Ni**ga!….One!

• Young Weezy

  jamie foxx and the GAY ASS blame-it is the reason auto tune needs to go away!!!

• KYLE

  F*ck auto tune. In this last year no one popular has made a rap album its just this b.s. robot voice stuff. the genre we knew as hip hop is gone and even though i dont like this song someone had to do this inorder to make people realize the sh*t the country is listening to everyday on the radio. the underground artists are the only ones who are actually trying to do something about hip hop while the mainsteam artists just do what the record label wants and what they think will make them the most money. these younger artists think their the sh*t, well they need to step back and look at the greats and maybe learn something from listening to their music. be independant grow some balls and follow Jay-Z’s lead and make a real rap album. if not hopefully the country will stop buying this sh*t and discover some of the smaller artists who are makin good music.

• Jack Treez

  See the proof of Jay-Z bitting rhymes for “Death of Autotunes” on the Jack Treez blog

  jtreez.blogspot.com

  One love and legalize me.

• Roc

  Ya’ll know jay-z if jay say jump just ask how fuckin high. Dude like Micheal air fuckin Jordan. Dude change the game period the world follows money & he’s that. Fuck auto tunes. The shit is old. That Lil mutha fucker Lil wAyne & t-pain Killarney that shit shit niggas rap,sing what Tha fuck ever you do don’t wear us out wit that bull-shit all the time. Do your own voice. I like the shit sometimes but got-damn Wayne rap nigga like you been doing. When he’s rapping with real niggas I bet they say wayne don’t come wit that rap yo voice one of my partners been said that shit. Kill that shit hova. & I still love that nigga tupac. So that’s real

• http://my.rawkus.com/xn/detail/u_ kendra09

  i was watching an old cher video on youtube called do you beleive in love from 1998 and i noticed that parts of the song was auto tuned that’s probably were t-pain got it from so all you rappers that use auto tune is jocin off of a 63 year old woman and you should be ashamed of yourself.

• Anonymous

  For all ya dumb people jay z is a real rapper and speaks the truth you little kids say he’s wack because you kids don’t know what real rap is…..jus like lil wayne he is garbage he uses the same lines over and over and takes other peoples lines he even used a whole verse aliyah used once in her song look it up on youtube called swagger jacker lil wayne also the difference between rappers now and rappers back then is that all the rappers you find little kids find emusing is because they are entertainers and that’s not rap at all it’s crap but jay z, nas, andre 3000, big L, biggie, tupac, big pun, I could go on for days are all real rappers when you listen to their lyrics those are real lyrical and highly talented rappers now for all the little kids out there auto-tune is not real rap and RAP IS DEAD SINCE JAY Z IS OUT THE GAME BECAUSE THERE ARE NO MORE REAL RAPPERS ONLY ENTERTAINERS THAT ENTERTAIN YOU LITTLE KIDS THAT BRAIN WASH YOU KIDS

• ROC BOii

  For all ya dumb people jay z is a real rapper and speaks the truth you little kids say he’s wack because you kids don’t know what real rap is…..jus like lil wayne he is garbage he uses the same lines over and over and takes other peoples lines he even used a whole verse aliyah used once in her song look it up on youtube called swagger jacker lil wayne also the difference between rappers now and rappers back then is that all the rappers you find little kids find emusing is because they are entertainers and that’s not rap at all it’s crap but jay z, nas, andre 3000, big L, biggie, tupac, big pun, I could go on for days are all real rappers when you listen to their lyrics those are real lyrical and highly talented rappers now for all the little kids out there auto-tune is not real rap and RAP IS DEAD SINCE JAY Z IS OUT THE GAME BECAUSE THERE ARE NO MORE REAL RAPPERS ONLY ENTERTAINERS THAT ENTERTAIN YOU LITTLE KIDS THAT BRAIN WASH YOU KIDS

• Ben

  I don’t mind a little singing every once in a while. You gotta love andre 3000, pharrell and niggas like that. They sing but the got mad flow. They make music for the love of making music, not for money. This bullshit autotune garbage and all this pop based rap and hip hop out now is not music, its a get rich quick scheme. Artists know it’ll make them money, so instead of putting their heart into it they come out with these ridiculous “one hit wonders”

• cal

  jay z is overrated… yawn… hip hop was called chanting for thousands of years; its dead because it was barely alive in the first place. twelve year olds like it but by the time kids grow up they realize its not good music its just some bs that they thought was cool when they were too young to understand how many asshols and no talent hacks made money doing ghetto minstrelsy…