Two Fridays ago, I came home from a long day of work and logged onto my Twitter account at about midnight. I was about to scroll through to see what people were talking about. To my surprise, I saw something I would never imagine seeing as the #1 trending topic and that was rapper Jay-Z.

While scrolling through the feeds, everything from those past two hours focused on Hov. Atleast 80% of the tweets. It was amazing and a true testament to arguably the greatest rapper of our generation and his legions of fans.

But what I failed to see once in those two hours was criticism. Every tweet I saw ranged from “Death of Auto-Tune” to “Na, Na, Na” to “Your jeans too tight, colors too bright, voice too light” and “Hip-Hop is alive once again.”

Most of them came from honest fans; but the rest came from individuals I didn’t expect much objectiveness from – the biased bloggers who would rather close their site than ever criticize the God MC.

But since DJ Mister Cee and Funkmaster Flex gave a memorable intro to his track; and his lauded performance at last weekend’s Summer Jam; the question I’ve been asking myself is: “What did Jay-Z exactly kill?”

Considering who he was on stage with at Summerjam, it obviously didn’t discourage T-Pain from continuing to use the voice box. Oh, but I forgot, the song doesn’t apply to T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Kanye West. It only applies to folks like Ron Browz and DJ Webstar, who Jay probably felt were taking it too far. But these individuals took the technology and found a way to make money off it. Didn’t you once say you “Can’t Knock the Hustle?” So why are you knocking theirs?

As the song spread, the resentment for Jay-Z was evident from forum members to artists.

“He’s just mad because Browz produced Ether,” said one member of the SOHH.Com Hip Hop forum.

“He doesn’t let the youth do their thing. He can’t stop what the radio plays. A hot record is a hot record,” responded DJ Webstar.

In response to Webstar’s comments, Carter said: “He doesn’t know any better.”

But I actually think he does. Why? Because there has been no death. The only thing Jay accomplished with this song is to make himself look weak amongst Hip-Hop fans that can judge him objectively.

Frankly, you just can’t come out of nowhere and proclaim death onto a piece of technology, but not when your friends, who you seem scared to criticize use it. Especially considering when the majority of BP3, a month ago according to Kanye West, was comprised of the tool Roger Troutman made famous. Oh, and don’t forget that you are killing Auto-Tune, but collaborating on your lead single with Drake, who has used it numerous times as well.

And in the four days I’ve been following the talk about this song, the only criticism I heard is that the song may not be all that. I never heard anything from the new voices of Hip-Hop, the bloggers, about how Jay came back with a cliché, catchy named song that is no different than Nas naming a track and an album “Hip-Hop is Dead.” Both have the same purpose and that’s to spark controvery/buzz.

Not one blogger called Jay out. Ni uno. And my question to you bloggers is this:

“Why can’t you criticize Jay on something that he deserves criticism on?”

It’s not like you’re ever going to get the opportunity to interview Jay. Its not like this is 96 and he’s making the rounds on Public Access TV shows and today he’ll sit near a land-line to talk with every blogger on the net. No, that’s not happening. I just can’t understand how Hip-Hop fans I’ve spoken to can criticize Barack Obama; but when it comes to Jay-Z, their silent.

That’s the problem with Hip-Hop as a whole; from the unsigned artist to the freelance writer and blogger. They all want to fit in and don’t want to do anything to risk the chance of not gaining membership to a community of “Stans.”

These bloggers/writers aren’t even writing their own opinions. They are just following the general consensus because they don’t want to feel left out. They form their opinions from threads on forums and comment posts.

Now before you all get into a craze, this is not a Jay-Z hate fest. I’m a Jay aficionado. He’s probably my favorite rapper ever and the first album I bought was Vol 1 from the Music House store on Dyckman Street. A few months later, I purchased Reasonable Doubt, his first LP and I’ve never missed one since.

But when I think of “Death of Autotune,” I flashback to BP2 when Jay said:

“But I’m sorry Miss Rosie Perez/ I call a Spade a Spade/ It just is what it is…but you can’t give cred to everything dude says.”

That line was directed at Nas, but can also apply to Jay himself in this situation. So because he says something that means it stands? Now, don’t get me wrong, I rather hear Ron Browz and Webstar produce songs than sing on them. The same goes for some of the other acts who use “auto-tune.” But who is Jay-Z to say what belongs or doesn’t on the radio; or what is and isn’t Hip-Hop?

DJ Webstar: “He’s 40 years old; he doesn’t know what kids want to listen to.”

When Webstar made this statement, many people said he was ludicrous to say so. But it’s not that far from the truth. How many kids do you know that were pumping American Gangster more than the Carter III? Please tell me how many?

Maybe it’s because I’m in NY and some 17 year old kids here may listen to Hov. But outside of NY? There is a world outside of here you do know that right? Jay-Z ain’t on everyone’s radar like that especially at 17. Their generation is Lil Wayne. Our generation was Jay and those other great 90’s artists that made it into this decade.

I coach a HS basketball team in this city and I heard about Wayne 3x more throughout the season than I did Jay. Wayne was the craze before and after Jay-Z album dropped.

Really though, It just makes no sense to me how people allow Jay to play this role. Who made him in charge of the art and when was he awarded this position? It’s not like this piece of technology hasn’t produced some good songs outside of the trio he mentioned.

“Sexual Seduction” by Snoop Dogg.

“Pop Champagne” by Ron Browz.

There have been plenty of other songs that may not pass a “NY Hip-Hop” test, but are still enjoyable to me.

But, in the end, no matter what anyone says or what power you assign to him, this song is essentially worthless. Is it a good song? Its alright. But did it make the mark Jay wanted it to make? I think not.

A prime example would be what occurred last week while I was listening to Hot 97. “Death of Autotune” came on. Ironically, right after, they played “Dancing on Me.”

So Jay can wish whatever he’d like onto a certain piece of technology, but when kids half your age are the ones voting and calling radio stations for these songs; the power you thought you had is virtually non exisistant…

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The Hypocrisy of Jay-Z is a post from: Live Above Mediocrity