Eric Mendes' Official Blog

With the legions of Jay-Z fans, myself included, anxiously awaiting the release of his eleventh studio album, the Jigga man decided to feed his fans’ appetite by dropping his first official street single off of Blueprint 3 – D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune). Jay-Z and the album’s co-producer, Kanye West, have already declared that BP3 will not only not feature the effect, but it will also be the “anti auto-tune” album.  So, after making these bold assertions, how does the first track off of BP3 hold up? Read on to find out.

While Kayne West will provide most of the production on BP3, much like 2001′s The Blueprint, No I.D. takes over the boards for D.O.A. utilizing a sample by the Janko Nilovic song, “In the Space”. While I.D. didn’t have to do much to the sample, he should still get mad props for digging up this sample from the 70′s psychedelic rock scene. The horns used throughout the track are wonderful and the guitar riffs are top notch, but the props for that should go to the original artists for providing the sample. The instrumental for D.O.A. has already been remixed by a variety of artists including AZ, Jay Rock, and Trey Songz of all people, showing that BP3 isn’t slacking on its production value.

You would think that since No I.D. brought the heat on the boards, that Hov would come through in the booth, but its like he decided to bring out his ‘B’ game and leave his ‘A’ game at the studio. While I love the message on the track, I just feel like the lyrics could have been upped a notch. For example, when he states, “I don’t be in the projects hallway, talking about how I be in the projects all day”, usually Jay would spit a tight metaphor that would make you pause and rewind the track, but I feel there’s no point in the track where that happens. Perhaps I’m expecting too much from Hova, but since he feels he’s the “G.O.A.T.” and he claims BP3 is a classic in the making, then he should be held at a higher degree.

But all in all, it’s a great track and Hov’s swag is on showcase once again. Plus, you got to love how Jay finally states what everyone has been thinking about concerning the whole Auto-Tune era of Hip-Hop – its got to go or atleast be toned down a bit! Yeah, I’m looking at you Weezy!

4/5

Click here for Jay-Z’s D.O.A.
Click here for the sampled track, “In the Space”