The Jay-Z song that made T-Pain want to drink himself to death
T-Pain is known for popularising Auto-Tune. He’s inspired many mainstream artists, including Kanye West, Travis Scott, and Future, to use the effect. But as much as he’s been praised for Auto-Tune, he’s received equal criticism. In 2009, Jay-Z attacked the overuse of the audio processor with the aptly titled ‘D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)’.
The song on his Blueprint 3 album saw him name-dropping T-Pain in the second verse. He rapped, “You n*ggas singin’ too much/ Get back to rap, you T-Paining too much.” Although the song allegedly wasn’t an attack on the Florida singer, he couldn’t help but feel the effect of what Jay was saying on the record.
“He knew what he was doing. When the n*gga says something is wack, it’s wack,” T-Pain told Drink Champs. “I was DJ Pain, before I was T-Pain. Nobody makes it to the second verse. A wise man once said, ‘You can’t knock the hustle.’ I’m the face of this. Just like Lil Yachty was the face of mumble rap. Anytime somebody talk about mumble rap, Lil Yachty was the first person to come up.
“I was the face of Auto-Tune. Anytime somebody said, ‘Auto-Tune,’ I’m the face. So, when you say Auto-Tune is wack, I’m the face. If I woulda said ‘fuckin’ blue Yankees are terrible,’ everybody woulda been like, ‘Oh, you dissin’ Jay-Z now? Anytime [Jay] says something is wack, it’s trash.”
T-Pain recorded a diss track over a reworked version of the beat, but it never saw the light of day. However, he performed the song for the first time at Wiscansin Fest in 2022. The singer went into detail about the response, claiming he was prepared to drink himself to death as a result of the song and people mocking him at one of his shows.
“I made the record after I did a show in [Las] Vegas and everybody in the crowd was like, ‘Jay-Z killed you, bro!’” he recalled. “I was like, ‘All right, I’m never doing shows again!’ And it’s all, like, bros, it’s all white boys with their shirts off and shit. ‘Jay-Z, it’s the Roc, bro. Fuck you, bro!’ I ended the show early and then I just tried to drink myself to death … I was just ready to go, man.”
Speaking to Funkmaster Flex on Hot 97, Jay-Z claimed he didn’t mean any disrespect towards T-Pain. “The guys who did it, did it great,” he said. “T-Pain, he does great melodies. If you listen to Kanye, great melodies. If you listen to ‘Say You Will’ or ‘Heartless’, great melodies. Lil Wayne’s ‘Lollipop’ was a fantastic melody. Everybody can’t do it. Let them guys do it. They got their little niche, let’s move on. That’s just my opinion. I don’t know if everybody feels the same way.”
The song’s producer, No ID, revealed he was arguing with Jay about the sound of The Blueprint 3 in Hawaii. However, Hov was inspired when he heard a Soulja Boy song, prompting him to write ‘D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)’.