Jay-Z: "DOA (Death of Auto-tune)"

I decided recently not to write about Jay-Z anymore—to, with our readers’ best interests in mind, pass on The Blueprint 3. After hearing “DOA (Death of Auto-tune),” I think I’m gonna stick with that plan. My reactions to Hova’s successes and failures occurs on an infantile emotional level; I consume his greatness with a fanboy’s eagerness, somewhere far past the juncture of critical responsibility and simple aesthetic appreciation. I embarrass myself.

Which means that this track—stumbling, vicious, playful and certain, its brashness and guitar stabs immediately recalling the still-acidic “Takeover”—makes me want to ooze hyperbole. You’d have to mop the hyperbole off of me with a thick towel. I’d have to shower the fucking hyperbole off me, the types of shit I want to say. I’d stain your pits with it. Because not only is “DOA” plainly awesome to listen to in that big, populist way Hov proved himself definitively still capable of on American Gangster (2007), still spitting with an evangelical swagger, still pushing pleasure nodes undiscovered by other emcees—the track also shames me, literally and personally. So titanic is his cockiness here that he has effectively produced a diss track toward the rest of hip-hop. And look at me, listening to other rappers! Rappers who aren’t Jay-Z! This isn’t the blind, attention-grabbing bird-flipping of early 50 Cent or current Eminem, nor is it the blithe self-flagellation of Hip Hop is Dead (2006). It is instead a dynamic and titanic reassertion of its vitality—its vitality, that is, as it exists solely within the figure of Jay-Z. “I’m a multimillionaire / How am I the realest nigga here?” Jay asks, apparently upset that he’s been forced out of Beyonce’s thighs in order to deliver this track, at once indictment and reminder. The sheer number of good lines begs for a fuller lyrical dissection, but so clarion is the internal logic that picking them apart would be a disservice to each, and the energy expended in this effort would be better served by just recommending that interested parties listen to the track on their own. They will get, immediately and perfectly, what I’m talking about. And won’t talk about again, I promise.