Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Music The Death of Mr. Autotune
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 5:08 PM
If you've heard a rap song in the last year you've heard auto-tune, that voice-correction technology first used as an instrument in its own right by Cher. Now T-Pain (pictured), Kanye West and Lil' Wayne are its chief purveyors, and the roboticized crooning it lends itself to has become so widespread that it recently got a celebrity death threat and a celebrity parody. On the totally disappointing "D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)", Jay-Z treats the technology as a symbol of all that's wrong with the industry, but his half-assed verses are more telling, and drowned out by No I.D.'s awesome beat:
Hopefully the rest of Blueprint 3 doesn't sound like this lousy first single, otherwise he should rename the album "Kingdom Come 2." On the funnier side of things, Wyclef Jean and Nick Cannon personify autotune technology in a hilarious track making fun of its excessive use that, appropriately, makes way-excessive use of autotune. As Wyclef raps in the last verse of "Mr Autotune": "And the moral of the story/ don't turn me on/ get some singing lessons so when I'm gone you're still around." Nice to hear the Fugees frontman still has a sense of humor, Jigga should have a listen:
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