The music industry needs to be quarantined for infectious disease. Send its faux-Vocoder crap raft down river to Betty Ford for severe addiction to voice alteration.
Now that three-quarters of BET’s line-up is saturated with AutoTune pipe smoke, I was a tidbit beside myself to hear Kanye invoke the program on “Love Lockdown.” Kanye has generally thought outside the box with eloquence, but digitizing your voice just isn’t what’s popping on the originality front anymore. It’d make more sense for Ye, and the likes, to go full-boar throwback and just embrace the delicacies of gawdawful sangin’ à la Biz Markie.
Now, Kanye is a can-do-no-wrong artist in my eyes so I shall say no more about his latest single. But the fact that he took it there has sparked much Net conversation, and TSS is no exception. Crew member Sam Cadet and I began a dialogue inspired by Mr. West, revealing an intense list of artists over the years who have robotically altered the quality of their voice for music.
As Phonte told TSS in reference to his alter-ego Tay-Pain, there are varying levels of vocal manipulation. Sam Cadet and I took an all-things-considered approach, narrowing our list of synthesizers to a baker’s dozen and ranking them from Best to Worst use or abuse of alteration.
1) Zapp & Roger – Computer Love
LC Weber: See, this is how to do it. Make a two-steppin’ love song about computers, sounding like a computer.
Sam Cadet: This song predates all of the I/G/AIM/Yahoo/MSN chat boo lovin’ that you kids do these days.
Rank: Perfect Than A Mug.
2) Herbie Hancock – Come Running To Me
Sam Cadet: This man deserves a prize for making a good eight-plus minute song using a talk box.
LC Weber: What did I say in Crew Love? Probably the best 8:29 to grace your eardrums.
Rank: Samplicious! (See: Slum Village and Myron)
3) George Clinton – Atomic Dog
Sam Cadet: The drums and the bass line on this joint are undeniably great. I can’t hate on this.
LC Weber: If you get sampled damn near note-for-note by Snoop in his prime, you’re doing something right.
Rank: P-Funktastic.
Sam Cadet: This is one of those rare cases where a voice alteration actually adds to a rap song’s value.
LC Weber: I mean, Outkast is so far advanced they may as well sound like robots anyway.
Rank: Aquemini, MFs.
5) Peter Frampton – Show Me The Way
LC Weber: Yacht Rock at it’s finest… when playing an actual instrument was still a talent that could make you famous.
Sam Cadet: I heard this song before but honestly, dude wasn’t even on my radar until I saw that Geico commercial.
Rank: Do You FEEeeeEEeeEEeelllll Like I DooooOOOOOO?!
6) Afrika Bambaataa – Planet Rock
Sam Cadet: Came out way before my time but I can roll with it.
LC Weber: Pardon me while I get to footworkin’… * pops, locks and robots away *
Rank: Rock It Don’t Stop It.
7) Jodeci – Freek’n You
LC Weber: I might could listen to that bridge every freakin’ night and every freakin’ day.
Sam Cadet: “Devaaaante swaaang” © K-Ci
Rank: *JoJo at 1:50*
LC Weber: Eh… Still makes me dance. Still like it. Still think Te’darius Pain IV ruined it for everyone thereafter.
Sam Cadet: This was last year’s simp anthem but that doesn’t stop Tangelo Pain from being terrible.
Rank: Simp Game 101.
9) Snoop Dogg – Sexual Eruption
LC Weber: The video saves it, taking it from “Snoop should know better” to “Snoop is a genius” in one fell swoop.
Sam Cadet: Word, Kanye should use this as inspiration for the “Love Lockdown” video… but Prince was probably shaking his head somewhere when this dropped.
Rank: Warbled 80s Video Tape.
LC Weber: I’m sensing an awkward trend of overtly sexual voice alteration.
Sam Cadet: Long story short I skip this EVERYTIME I listen to Tha Carter III.
Rank: Paging Dr. Carter… Paging Dr. Carter…
Sam Cadet: More reason to believe that the T-Pain effect begets BS like this.
LC Weber: Discarded Enrique Iglasias beat circa 1997 + gum = Chris Brown
Rank: Making Papa-Pain Proud.
LC Weber: Doing this shit like it was going out of style before it was even in.
Sam Cadet: I’d tell you to stay away if it wasn’t a 10 year old hit already.
Rank: Ear Cancer.
Sam Cadet: Rappin’ like Optimus Prime is NOT what’s hot in the streets, son.
LC Weber: Rapping with Auto Tune, son… Hell just got about 4 degrees colder.
Rank: Rank.
Feel free to weigh in with your picks for Best or Worst or anything in between.
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Complaining about auto-tune just isn’t what’s popping on the originality front anymore.
I’ve said all I can about the evils of Autotune OD. So I’mma conclude with this:
This is just another example of how the music industry takes a trend and runs it to the ground. Instead of promoting originality, they try to copycat anything that’s selling. When Britney came out, the next week you had about five or six skinny blond teenage singers. The business of music is more generic that Great Value at Walmart. And then they wonder why they sales plummet. I just can’t understand, for the life of me, how the general public just accepts it.
to me, frampton’s “do you feel like we do” tops “show me the way” – for whatever that’s worth – but i know l-dub’s a yacht rack fan, so i’m not gonna trip.
the same goes for herbie’s “you bet your love” – a dancefloor killer – in comparison to “come running,” but again, that’s a personal preference.
with that said, however, the lack of any chromeo on this list really puts your credibility in jeopardy, and “planet rock” at #6 is a bit of a head-scratcher, too.
RE: “computer love,” for as dope as it is, this song isn’t nearly as good as much of what troutman and zapp did prior…the entire ‘many facets of roger album’ comes to mind. it was a hot single, though. i remember when this track was all over the radio.
all in all, an imaginative post. you probably could have gone much deeper, but it’s a start.
Real quick, this is off-topic:
This is a bit disconcerting:
John McCain’s 23 year old daughter Meghan on her influence over him: “Everybody always thought he was like a military dad at home, but he wasn’t. I’m his baby, and I can get him to do anything.”
On that note…Karmaloop has those Undr-Crwn “O Face” t-shirts in stock…I ordered mine using the 20% off rep code (thanks Wit-E!)
At this point, I could care less if you listen to E-40, Lil Boosie, or The Cool Kids…but if you vote for McCain/Palin…from the bottom of my heart, you can eat a shit sandwich. That’s real talk. Republicans suck.
Co-Sign Teeph.
Timbaland Presents – The Fall of John Doe – The Rise of D.O.E
01 Timbaland Intro
02 Bottom 2 Tha Top
03 Streets Been Watchin
04 The Tortoise and The Hare
05 Timbaland Speaks
06 The Hottest
07 On the Real
08 Maurice PoBitch Skit
09 Apple Juice
10 Bags Packed
11 Still Me
12 Watchin Me
13 The Fall
14 Get High
15 Coming Down_Timbaland Outro
http://uploaded.to/?id=lp72fm
LOL @ “from the bottom of my heart, you can eat a shit sandwich”
^ the “O Face” t is the one depicting Obama dunking on McCain with his nuts in the old man’s face. Also, Mighty Healthy has a dope Obama t as well which references Ali’s “Bumaye” chant during press for his October 74 “Rumble In The Jungle” fight against Foreman.
http://www.karmaloop.com/products.aspx?ProductID=36880&VendorCode=RKS&utm_source=mybuysweb&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=recommendations&mybuyscid=1550981905
Ronnie – out of my own catlike interests, what exactly would you put on your list?
@Teeph – There’s a O Face wallpaper for your desktop. I copped the shirt and just found the wallpaper. I sent it to Gotty but he wouldnt offer it cause he’s going to Alaska for a date!
WHATS THAT ABOUT G?
History will not be kind to the Autotune era. It’s gonna be like, “Gas prices shot up, the economy slumped, and Autotune songs ruled the air waves.”
That chick on Yung Berg’s ” The Business” could get it with the quickness though!!! Shorty was lookin’ fly in the video fa’sho’!!!. What about Kanye’s verse on Jeezy’s “Put On”??? I thought that was a worthy mention
^ just throw it up here.
Sorry but i’m not personally involved in politics outside the politics of my household, my bank account & the 615 area lol. No matter who wins, we’re still fucked b/c the major corporations & lending institutions.
Now, some of my esteemed colleagues might view the world differently so I can’t speak for them.
Damn Gotty got a thing for dumb broads who can handle firearms!!
LOL
@ Ronnie…. Damn, family. Rough.
The only thing I’m going to defend here – on account of I stand by the list for myriad reasons – is “Planet Rock” at #6. If we were making a list of best pop and lock or b-boy cuts, shit would probably be at the top spot. Song is incredible. But as far as use of voice alteration… eh… pretty average. He neither sounds good using it, nor does it hurt the song. Middle of the pack, right where it’s at.
Fin.
…man, put anything by Daft Punk up on that list, most notably “Digtal Love”….that song is MY SHITTTTTTTT!!
Obama has my vote this November. He’s had it for a while. And that’s meaningful on a personal level, because I’ve been a registered voter since ’97, but this will be my fist time voting.
But people are acting like Obama’s some kind of angel. My aunt listens to the Michael Baisden show on the radio everyday, and everyday is like a love affair with this dude. It’s almost sickening how they bowing to the altar of Barack.
He is a politician, and he will do what politicians do. Black, White, left wing, right wing, male, female, a politician is still a politician, which basically, to me, means PIMP, and we shouldn’t fully trust any of them. None of them, including our man Obama, is above fuckery.
@ rob p.
“Complaining about auto-tune just isn’t what’s popping on the originality front anymore.”
@ronnie
“RE: “computer love,” for as dope as it is, this song isn’t nearly as good as much of what troutman and zapp did prior…the entire ‘many facets of roger album’ comes to mind.
cosign you both. that doesnt take away from CLoves dopeness, tho.
good post Crew
Faim.
whatever the “NEW THING” is, I just hope it hurries up and gets here already.
&
Talented artists who still choose to use the auto-tune is just as bad as people who (truly) look at the status of this country and still think voting McCain/Palin is a really good idea.
At this point it’s just a lazy out.
@ Teeph… It’s not that republicans suck…. Politricks suck in general. Often times (and this time is no different) a bunch of people that will compromise their souls for the sake of a vote.
What’s cornier right now tho?
Auto-tune
or
You Tube thuggery (equipped with “goons” w/ shotties in the background)
Props to LC
I just copped the Herbie Hancock joint, and was thoroughly impressed at the best use of a vocoder ever (2nd of course to Computer Love)
I never have liked the Auto tune program. The talk box was cool when it first started…but if you notice…it has phased out (not phased like a phaser effect) in modern rock music. I think T-Pain sounds kinda dope on the effect…until I heard every rapper (even Jay for about ten seconds) do it. Now, T-Pain’s whole marketing ploy is destroyed. Dude can sing okay…but he couldn’t make a platinum record off of mere talent and we all know that.
P.S. I cosign the Herbie Hancock. I wanna sample it soooooo bad…but it’s hard to do the song justice…over 8 minutes of perfection is hard to condense into a couple of loops!
@ Tone Def
I think Slum Village and Myron killed both of the loops they chose
Jay Dee already sampled that Herbie Hancock track on the Slum Village album…
Oh
Computer Love?
Nah…TSS Love. lol
Paaaarrrtyy peeeooppllleee
Was Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” on that list? I dunno if that song counts…
But yeah, I’d be a fool to believe Obama is the silver bullet we need to make everything better…I would view his being in office as a step or part of a natural progression towards making things better…but Gotty has a point…local politics is just as important and deserves just as much attention if one wants to see meaningful and immediate change..
WTF? Not even DMX and Pac in there?
Mannn, Dade County is so corrupt, so, so soooooo damn corrupt, it don’t even matter who gets elected here, they gon have they hands out regardless. People can talk all the shit about NY they want, but at least theres some level of civility. Out here, its one giant free for all. Local government is shit.
Excuse me, take away that DMX.
I agree with the number one though, thats why California Love should also be on there.
Kool Keith also did a dope as song with Roger Troutman.
Frowns @ “Te’darius Pain IV”
Im not one to voice my opinions with any great force (*starts lookin over shoulder and ducks), but I sure hoe that folks will get out and vote.
For those who aren’t so politically inclined and involved we all can benefit from being involved. We reaped the benefits when Clinton was in office. Even those who didnt vote.
But this time here and now, we all MUST get involved. Yes you can say its the lesser of two evils….but I’d rather have someone who looks, represents, and feels like me in the BIG HOUSE than some joke who sits on top of the hill lookin down.
And after seeing shots from the “Love Lockdown” video shoot… it’s gonna come out looking like Big Pimpin or Tip Drill. Cheah!
lol Big Pimpin’ !
impossible…that’ll be ridiculous witdyssong
well, there’s what i already mentioned…the middle section of “do you feel like we do” is classic. herbie’s ‘feets don’t fail me now’ has some tasty shit on it, too…”ready or not” gets the most love from that album, but i’ll take “you bet your love” or “tell everybody” over that any day on the uptempo tip, and “honey from the jar” to mellow it out.
roger & zapp…”more bounce to the ounce,” “dance floor,” “doo waa ditty,” “i wanna be your man”…joints like the cover of “i heard it through the grapevine” and “so ruff so tuff” from ‘the many facets of roger’…”california love”…sly and parliament-funkadelic have also used the talk box and other vocal alteration…one of my favorite p-funk fam solo jams “i’ll be with you” from bernie worrell’s ‘all the woo in the world’ has some delicious vocal effects…stevie wonder, slave, the beatles (although not so much external vocal alteration as studio effects/experimentation), chromeo, the beastie boys on “something’s gotta give,” jeff beck, aerosmith on “sweet emotion”…there’s a lot of shit out there. somebody mentioned daft punk. for as played out as “around the world” is, it’s arguably daft at their best.
i know for a fact that i got records with talk box that i probably don’t even remember i own. i’m not mad at your little list, though…except for the lack of chromeo. i can give you a pass on the old shit, l, but no chromeo? DAMN. :)
Auto Tune Gets the gas face
Kanye West is a fucking douche bag
yeah california love is one of the quintessential talk box tracks. nice round up though