In case you have been hiding under a rock, Jay Z recently premiered a new song on NYC's Hot 97 radio station called "Death of The Autotune" or DOA. In it he declared that the Era of autotune rappers was over, with lines like "Get Back to Rappin' you T-paining too much" and "The music ya'll are making gonna make it a great depression".

Hours before the song was even played, all of the major social networks were abuzz with anticipation, with 5 out of 10 of twitter's trending topics being related to the release. Seconds after the song was played all of those social networks were filled with responses to the track, with folks rushing to celebrate autotune's demise. From California to New York, the sentiment was overwhelming; Jay Z had killed and buried the use of it. There were folks saying things like "Nobody will be able to use autotune anymore", "Jay Z just pushed Ron Browz out of a window" and "Real Hip Hop is back".

But before we rush to judgment let's take a step back and analyze if this is really the case. In order to do so I've pointed out the first four things that came to mind when I began analyzing the validity of this claim.

1. Jay Z just released a huge song, talking about not using autotune. Is there a better way to make your mark in Hip Hop right now than to use autotune in a response record?

2. The same radio stations DJ's that dropped bombs on the track and gushed about how epic it is will continue to play tracks that are autotuned. In fact they did that same night, right after DOA was played.

3. Mary J Blige just used it in one of her new songs. That's right Mary J Blige, the queen of R&B has succumbed to the temptation of using it to increase her chances of having a radio hit. If she can't resist the allure, then who can?

4. Jay z is just too old at this point to have an impact on the listening base that matters the most now. The ugly truth is most folks 25 and older see Jay Z as an iconic figure, but most kids under 21 see him as part of the old guard of Hip Hop, they know who he is, but he's not their idol. They are no more concerned about what a 40 plus year old man thinks about their music than they are about what he thinks of their fashion... "Your pants too tight, your colors too bright".
DOA (live)

In my personal opinion the No ID produced track is tough and Jay Z's flow and lyrical content are about average for Jay, But this track only serves one purpose. It doesn't kill the use of autotune, but it does create excitiment for the release of latest and supposedly last (again) album The Blueprint 3....at least amongst those 25 and older.