DEATH of autotune!

YES, Jay-Z is back! and back with a vengeance indeed. His 11th album, The Blueprint 3, is a variety of melodies mixed with hardcore beats to fill the soul of the hip hop enthusiast. Jay has dominated a discipline that is mostly reserved for the younger rapper. With a cool 40 on the horizon this December, Jay is re energized and definitely feeling his swagger peak. Although his album is full of variety and complex lyrics, there is a familiarity to it that is classic Jay. One of the more interesting songs is not the most likely. DEATH of Autotunes. This rendition is better appreciated when combined with the video.

The full context of the song “Death of Autotune” is a condemnation of the existing patterns of music that are dominating the airways by popular producers like T-Payne, Rodger Troutman and Jamie Foxx where the human voice is synthesized to give a computer like tone. According to Jay-Z, the Autotune techniques that are currently used to create songs have overshadowed the need to create intricate lyrics or to use real musicians in creating music.

Jay-Z is clearly frustrated with the state of music and emphasizes that in DOA. In his first verse he rants;

“This is anti-Autotune, death of the ringtone.

This ain’t for itunes, this ain’t for sing-alongs…”

He is attacking the way in which the music industry has endorsed the dumbing down and vast commercialization of music and its lyrical content subjugating it to a fad, especially in hip hop. On a recent appearance on Bill Maher’s show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Jay-Z described some of the music being put out as befitting of a “Wendy’s commercial”. He reiterated that point in DOA when he raps;

“I know we facing a recession,

but the music y’all making gonna make it the great depression.

All your lack of aggression

pull your skirt back down, grow a set, man

n---a this shit violent

this is death of Autotune

moment of silence.”

In the previous line of that DOA verse, Jay-Z also attacked the current culture and the way in which they have concentrated too much on the appearances and producer’s studio gimmicks and not the substance of not just hip hop culture but the integrity of it when he writes;

“You n----s singin too much,

Get back to rap you T-Pain’n too much

I’m a multi-millionaire

So how is it I’m still the hardest n—a here?

I don’t be in the project hallway

Talkin’ bout how I be in the project all day

That sound stupid to me

If you a gangsta this how you prove it to me

N---a just get violent

This is death of Autotune,

moment of silence”

What Jay-Z is also showing in this verse is the hip hop culture was meant to embrace the struggle of the streets. Jay-Z believes his financial success should have placed him in an obsolete position, he feels he should not be still relevant in hip hop. Yet because of the mentality and the current obsession with commercialism (i.e., ringtones), he still is able to not only navigate the system but dominate it. He challenges the young rapper to stop talking about menial topics and expand his lyrical and musical base to say something worth saying and to say it in a clever way. He also gives him a “Blueprint (3)” of how to go about accomplishing this.

While hip hop has always been about describing the conditions in the inner city, including those in the projects, the intent was not to deify the lifestyle but to bring like to them and find a way out. In songs like DOA, Jay-Z challenges those who are self-described as “gangstas” to do what so-called gangstas like Sinatra and himself have done, innovate, create, and expand the base while keeping the integrity of the discipline alive.

IF we look deeper into the metaphoric symbolism of the lyrics we will notice in the beginning of the song, Jay-Z compares the gritty baselines and grimy feel of the DOA song with that of a “deadly weapon.” Despite what has been put out in the media and in commentary such as the one listed in the October 4, 2009 Sun-Times; "Letters to the Editor," he isn’t advocating physical violence in this song at all. What he is doing is creatively and intelligently using symbolism to characterize how hip hop music should be represented. He suggests the real essence of hip hop music is hard core in its presentation and that has been lost to trivializing it to ringtones and jingles. We he tells the listener “IF you a gangsta this is how you prove it to me, n---a just get violent…” he isn’t suggesting to go out and commit random acts of violence or to even engage in violence. What he is saying is get back to the basics, get back to substance and cultivate the lost art of hip hop music. Re-energize the integrity of the music through lyrics and through real musical approaches. REST IN PEACE, AUTOTUNES!