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Posted Thursday, June 11, 2009 3:37 PM

Auto-Tune Jumps the Shark -- Thanks, Wendy's!

Sarah Ball


It's the rap-world equivalent of a bugle sounding taps: When a once-cool hip-hop technique is being used to shill watery milkshakes, you can consider it officially FUBAR.

Jay-Z told a Chicago radio station on Tuesday that the inspiration behind his new track "D.O.A." (for "Death of Auto-Tune") came from a Wendy's commercial that used the pitch-fragmenting sound processor.  Wendy's "Frosty Posse" jingle (above) was the official moment, the rapper said, when a former way to make "great music" went from "trend" to "gimmick." Since the technique gained popularity within rap specifically and then music generally, it's seeped onto Saturday Night Live and into YouTube spoofs of Katie Couric.  We're going to call the lyrics downright snarky:

This is anti-autotune, death of the ringtone/

This ain’t for iTunes, this ain’t for sing-along/

This is Sinatra at the opera—bring a blonde

There's no question who wins this spat. Flip turns of phrase like I might send this to the Mixtape Weezy, set against cool instrumentation (is that a xylophone?!), decidedly trump Do you wanna get Frosty wit meeee?

To hear "D.O.A.", click below.


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