Tweet
A necessary corrective to a trend that’s past its sell-by date or a curmudgeonly refusal to accept the stagnation of New York hip-hop through tearing down what’s replaced it? You decide. Either way, a nasty track with big analog-sounding drums and aggressive guitar.
I mean: "This might need a verse from Jeezy (hey!)/ I might send this to the mixtapes, Weezy/ Get somebody from BMF to talk on it." Damn. "You rappers singing too much/ Get back to rap, you T-Paining too much."
I don’t know about this. I have a high tolerance for Autotune — maybe higher than I should — because you get interesting sounds by its deliberate overuse. What I have a low tolerance for are elder statesman complaining that the kids don’t do it like Hank done it no more. I heard so much of that in hardcore from people afraid of progress. I’m not saying that Autotune is progress, just that questioning a rapper’s legitimacy through his or her use of melody is a bad argument.
6 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About ATTACKERMAN
RSS/XML Feed
What is Autotune? Is it some computer program?
Did no one tell Jay-Z that it’s a bad idea to attack the entire Islamic
Worldpop scene?not to mention the clarinet! baller!
Nelson- AutoTune is pitch correction software used to make people sing more in tune. Lately rappers when not even singing use it because they enjoy the glitch it brings to their voice.
Spencer I am glad you fell down on this side of the trend. I still feel there is awesome creative limits that have not been reached with where artists (particularly MCs) can go with this effect, but i welcome Jay-Z calming the trend down. I said in my coverage of it Friday night, it usually takes me 2 hours to hear a song on hot 97 without autotune on it. This weekend I listened a couple of times and this was the only track that didn’t have Autotune on it. Let’s hope the trend simmers down but that the people who use it well, still find ways to innovate with it.
This whole concept, that THIS music has validity, or THIS music has credibility, or THAT music sells out the genre, or this artist isn’t real, and this technology makes anything you do with it automatically bullshit, is, well, bullshit.
Ultimately, one has to ask, what is the point of music? Well, if you’re going to cut tracks to sell, you want people to enjoy listening to it, in numbers large enough to make an economic and social difference.
Music fills a need in my soul. If a song, or an artist fills that need, is something that resonates with me, is something I LIKE to listen to, then exactly why am I supposed to care how it was created or whether the artist is “real” or meets some set of arbitrary criteria set by other people?
I’m not sure how listening to music became some kind of competitive sport, but I can’t see any upside to the trend. I like what I like, and I honestly don’t care if you think I shouldn’t like it.
Cripes…
mikey
It was progress when it started but now it’s just played out.
More to the point, it’s also part of a larger trend of rappers trying to cross-over into dance-pop, and that shit needs to be arrested at all costs.
Jigga was right to drop this track. And frankly, it’s the best thing he’s put out in a while. Thanks for the heads up.
…but can I just go Flavor Flav on y’all and say one more thing? You hear that beat? It’s a sick beat, right? Produced by Kanye and NoID. Well, RZA put out an album about a 18 months ago called 8 Diagrams–maybe y’all have heard of it?–and he got slammed in the hip-hop community for producing guitar-heavy cuts. Flash-forward two years and now that style’s Presidential. Huh.
RZA FTW, leading the trend once again. Wu-Tang FOREVER.