DTW

Death To Whom?
written by Just K

Jay-Z made a song that pretty much echoes the sentiments of the streets. “This autotune bulls#!t is getting out of hand.” Like, remember when we heard rappers’ real voices? Remember when rappers were making hard songs instead of sounding all extra Microsoft? Apparently Jay-Z remembers this time and decided to take it back. Lyrics like “Holdup, this ain’t a number 1 record” and “this ain’t for sing-a-long” are the equivalent of Jay-Z telling MCs to stop trying to make hit records and just make quality music.

Hmmmm…a bit hypocritical much?

As Jus stated earlier this week, this is the same guy that gave us “Can I Get A…” (my raps don’t have melodies, huh?) which is clearly an attempt at making a hit song. “Give it to Me,” “Show Me What You Got,” “Big Pimpin’,” that seizure-inducing video for “Sunshine” and “H to the Izzo” are all definitely strategically planned hit records.



So here’s where things get a bit interesting to me. When Jay debuts the song, he takes time out to let it be known that T-Pain, Lil’ Wayne, and Kanye all have talent. According to the law of Jay-Z, they are allowed to use autotune. Aside from them, it’s just being used to way too much apparently. Again, hmmmmm. Did he just give a pass to the only people that use autotune and then tell us that autotune is being used too much? Aside from Ron Browz (the epitome of horrible autotuning), name another hip-hop artist that had major success off an autotuned single.



It’s cool. I’ll wait.


Now, here’s where Jus and I differ: I think the song is dope. I love it. It’s a declaration that is so bold, so strong, and so loud that the public is duped into thinking it’s completely relevant since the public has been saying for quite some time what Jay is saying now. He’s playing voice box (no pun intended) for the people, albeit a bit after we stopped talking. Regardless, it’s not like we weren’t saying it just yesterday. The beat is on some hard $#!t (no constipation). It’s got a soulful feel to it. The chorus is minimal and irresistibly catchy. Again, way to dupe the people by saying it’s not a hit song and giving it a hit song’s chorus. And recycling a part of Kanye’s “Big Brother” further ensuring that the song will be a hit – genius! The sheer hypocrisy and boldness is wonderful to me. The fact that he’s chosen a concept song for his lead single is even better. Yep. Rap’s Brett Favre is at it again. I think he may have tossed a two-point conversion and tricked the world into thinking it was a touchdown. Either way, dude still scored.