Death of Autotune? You Be The Judge

Say it ain't so. Is this really the death of auto tune? Several weeks back when Jay-Z first premiered the debut track from his highly anticipated "Blueprint 3" album it caused a lot of controversy. A lot of cats in the industry got their panties in a bunch. Let's just say the Big Homie ruffled a few feathers, and rightfully so. A lot of new artist coming out right now are making their living from auto tune. Even the VP of marketing from Antares Audio technology, the makers of the auto tune machine put out a statement about Jigga's new single. He seems to not be concerned about this Death of Auto Tune campaign that is going on in the industry right now. Obviously he isn't familiar with Jay-Z's influence in the hip hop community or his track record when it comes to denouncing the latest and greatest fad. To Jay-Z's credit when he does criticize a fad, he always has a suggestion about what should come after. How about a quick rundown?

I think it was in the late 90's when the throwback jersey really starting taking off. You could not walk 1 block without seeing at least 10 people rocking one. All the well known and not so well known athletes and rappers could be spotted wearing the latest throwback. From jay-Z all the way down to the lowest man in Fabolous' entourage. They were in every music video. These cats would pay upwards of $400 for an authentic throwback jersey. It wasn't until the counterfeiters got a hold of it that it got a little bit out of hand. You would see 60 year old white women wearing throwbacks. And let's not get on the worst offender of this crave. Everyone had "that" uncle who thought he was still cool and would rock his throwback tucked in with some heavy starched and creased jeans shorts and church shoes with the thin socks pulled all the way up the calf. Come on people! When you see that it is time to move on. It wasn't until Jay-Z's Black Album that the throwback craze of the late 90's and early 2000's started to fade to black. In the song "What More Can I Say" Jigga spit the now infamous line "And I don't wear jerseys, I'm 30 plus, give me a crisp pair of jeans, nigga button up." That one line dismantled the empire we all know as the throwback dynasty.

It doesn't end there. We all know what the bubbly of choice has been for celebrities in nightclubs and at high end parties. You guessed it, Cristal. For as long as I can remember hip hop artists have been rapping about the Gold foil wrapped champagne. Cristal was in every single music video for the past 10-15 years. There wasn't an episode on MTV's Cribs where someone didn't have a bottle of Cristal in there fridge. There was even the rare occasion when the average Joe would go in the club and local dope boys would be walking around with a bottle of Cristal in their hand. Can you say re-up money? But, in 2006 when the marketing director of the company who makes Cristal made some questionable remarks about the hip hop industry being "unwelcomed attention" for his brand, Jay-Z took offense. He started the Cristal Boycott of 06. In several interviews he made it clear he would no longer carry Cristal in his clubs or in his personal collection. In his song "Kingdom Come" Jay-Z said "Fuck Cristal." All it takes is for Jay-Z to say it and it is law. Don't get me wrong, Cristal won't be filing for bankruptcy or anything. Their clientele extended way beyond hip hop artists, so I guess they got rid of all the unwelcomed attention they were getting.

That's 2 for 2. Things aren't looking so good for auto tune. I have to say I agree with the Big Homie. This auto tune thing is getting out of hand. Don't get me wrong, I love what T-Pain does with it and who can honestly say that they didn't like Lollipop? And Kanye's new album is pretty hot, a bit redundant, but nonetheless still hot. Nowadays everybody is doing it and it is getting quite annoying. Auto tune seems to have become a joke. And who wants to go to a show where all the artists songs are auto tune and you get there and they sound horrible? If you can't do it live don't do it, unless you go back to the days when Roger and Zapp did it big with the synthesizer. They did a concert and was up on stage with the tube in the mouth sounding just like the record. I give T-Pain all the props for bringing it back. It was hot I have to admit, but now it's just bothersome to hear it on every record played. I wasn't really a crusader for the death of the "N" word, but I do think it's time to bury the "A" word, Auto tune. What say you?