Friday, June 12, 2009

Is Jigga trying to remain relevent?



I know by now you've all heard Hov's new street single off The Blueprint 3 "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)". In it Jay takes some shots at every body's favorite studio tool. He even calls out persons in the "game" who frequently use the device. Even though Kanye West and Lil Wayne, two of his most frequent collaborators, use it very often. I love Jay-Z. I have everyone of his albums in my collection. I even liked Kingdom Come. But the one thing i always liked and respected about him, was that he is a trendsetter. When he couldn't get a major label to sign him, he started his own shit. Roc-a-Fella Records became one of the biggest labels in the history of Hip Hop. The "Hard Knock Life" Tour single-handily resurrected the idea that rappers could sell-out major areas and have no violence. Roc-a-Wear, Roc-a-fella Films, Armandale Vodka, the list goes on and on. When Jay-Z spoke, the rest of the rap game listened.
Now he is saying that the "game" needs a face-lift. And to certain degree, i totally agree with his sentiment. I mean have you listened to the radio lately? It's all bullshit. The same shit over and over again. You got niggas like Ye and Weezy claiming to be the best in the game, but don't know if they want to be rappers or singers. Don't Get me wrong, i loved 808's & Heartbreaks, but i miss that hungry rapper he was two, three years ago. The problem i have with Jigga is that now he wants to "down" talk Auto-tune, when he basically set this whole shit in motion, when he was President of Def Jam. He didn't support real hip hop artists like LL Cool J, Method Man, Ghostface Killah & Joe Budden. Even his Roc homies like Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Young Gunz and protege Memphis Bleek didn't escape the Def Jam's "shift". While those artists floundered, Southern rappers like Young Jeezy, Rick Ross and Ludacris became household names. The message was clear, if you wasn't a pop act or reppin the dirty south, you didnt matter. He sat back and allowed the Def Jam, the most important label in the history of Hip Hop, to become as relevant and Jive Records.
Now what am i trying to say? Maybe Auto-Tune needs to die. Maybe it has run it's course. But i just find it awfully convient that he wants to talk about this shit when he knows he got on of the most important albums of his career coming out in September.

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