‘An attack on change’: T-Pain reflects on Jay-Z’s ‘D.O.A.’ and the initial criticism towards AutoTune
The Tallahassee artist said it took him time to see Jay-Z’s perspective after he was dissed on the song “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune).”
When Jay-Z dropped his track “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune) “in 2009, T-Pain recalls struggling with the diss from a rapper whom he admired.
“That sucked,” T-Pain said. “I’m a Jay-Z fan still to this day. One of my favorite songs from him was ‘Can’t Knock the Hustle.’ And getting my hustle knocked wasn’t on my bingo card.”
The “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” rapper explained on the “ExpediTIously” podcast with T.I. that when he was younger, he took the diss personally, and it took him time to understand Jay-Z’s viewpoint.
“It just came down to me not understanding how to process somebody else’s feelings and looking at things from the other side and trying to see all sides of a situation before I was able to react,” he said.
He continued, “It wasn’t a call to kill T-Pain. It was like, ‘Hey, guys. I’m still me now. I’m still Jay-Z. Y’all don’t get too caught up with that s–t over there. Ain’t going to last too long.’”
T-Pain also added that he and Jay-Z have spoken a “bunch of times” since the diss track and its fallout, and that they see each other often at events.
Earlier in the conversation, T-Pain addressed the criticism for autotune that didn’t just come from Jay-Z, but from music fans and the industry at large.
“Nobody knows how to process that — having the whole world come at you at one time, saying, ‘Hey, that new thing you’re doing is too different, we don’t like it. We like the song, but for some reason we not too tough with you.’”
The Tallahassee artist, 41 now, said in hindsight, “It felt like an attack on me, and it was more of an attack on change.”
“As I grow up and become more mature and I can actually process and think about these things, it was the change,” he said. “It was the threat to the people that relied on everybody liking the current sound…The people that rely on that and make it their whole identity… of course, there’s gonna be some backlash from them.”
What's Your Reaction?
Like
0
Dislike
0
Love
0
Funny
0
Angry
0
Sad
0
Wow
0
