Me and Jay Z haven't always got on. I once declared a drive-time radio show I was co-hosting a Jay Z Free Zone and banned any subsequent airplay from him. Over time I've come to appreciate his marketing genius and the occasional flashes of extremely on point rhyming, even his materialistic arrogance doesn't really bother me that much anymore. One thing that still bugs me however is the fact he still has one of the most annoyingly whiney voices in Hip-hop, something in the tone and pitch that just grates somewhere in my soul. You can imagine him as a kid, like the male version of Veruca Salt. However, something that grates on me even more is the fact that plenty of rappers and Bashment artists over the past few years have felt the need to try and make their voices purposefully and synthetically whiney by using Autotune. No doubt I have already had this rant so won't go over well worn ground but seems that actually in this area both me and Jay Z can agree on matters Autotune is dead.

(YSI) Jay Z - DOA (Death Of Autotune) / alt link

At first I thought this might be a blatant swipe at Kanye West after his last album, especially with lines such as 'you rappers singing too much', but as the track (and infact the whole Blueprint 3 album apparently) has ironically been co-produced by him it seems unlikely (although knowing both artists' courting of controversy not impossible). This isn't the best track in the world ever and won't make us rush out on September 11th (another arrogant but clever move) and buy the album but it's solid Hip-hop and the sentiments are certainly supported here at Chrome Mansions.