So you already learned that Nicki Minaj is bionic and aspirational as they come. So what did that grand revelation mean for the future of her music? Well, check it out. As in her new, spritzy jingle produced and featuring the head Black Eyed Pea. In just under cuatro minutos, she manages to incorporate every single trite Pop practice from Auto-Tune to a quirky delivery to a bubbly bridge. Just makes you wanna giggle, doesn’t it? Read the rest of this entry »

Although the words “donate,” “Haiti” and “help” are no longer on the tip of every newscaster’s tongue across the planet, the crisis that left the Caribbean country in ruins is still an ongoing ordeal. There’s plenty of charities and movements out there for every able participant to contribute to in some form or fashion, and tonight unveiled the regurgitation of one the most popular ones ever created. Read the rest of this entry »

“I just think in Hip-Hop, when a trend becomes a gimmick, it’s time to move on. I saw a Wendy’s commercial and they’re using Auto-Tune. They’re joking on it. It’s like, OK, enough of that... It was a trend, it was cool in the beginning. Some people made great music with it, now it’s time to move on.”– Jay-Z Read the rest of this entry »

WOOOO!

Take a moment to laugh your hearts out, children. Read the rest of this entry »

Beautiful songbird Christina Aguilera obviously stands behind Hov on the D.O.A. argument. Read the rest of this entry »

Words by Jesse H.

Ladies, gentlemen of the TSS faithful. I come before you today with some awful, haunting news.

I know we were all comforted by brother Carter’s repeated affirmations that Auto-Tune was dead. We watched tensely as it flirted with a comeback on its deathbed, seeing it gasp a few last robotic breaths, before finally passing to a much-deserved afterlife in the inner circles of pop music Hades.

Well, as I’m sure you can all guess by the somber tone of this post- I have evidence that Auto-Tune is indeed alive and well, hiding and rehabilitating itself, waiting for Hip-Hop trends to again dumb themselves down to levels where the pitch-perfecting software seems repeatedly like a good idea. Read the rest of this entry »

Hundreds of miles removed, Summer Jam wasn’t of much consequence for me. But with no major fireworks or expected controversies slated like previous years, it was hard to even feign attention. If you want them, you’ll be bombarded with them across the net (or you could just make your way to Cipha Sounds Youtube page).

Let’s just hit the highlight, which would be T-Pain making his way on stage as Jay-Z performs “D.O.A.”

1. Jay’s song was not revolutionary. It’s what the listening public has been clamoring for.

2. As the one who originally rode the current wave of Auto Tuning to fame, Pain gets a pass, even appearing on stage (minus his “Big Ass Chain” which would’ve been a highlight for me). “You rappers singing too much/ Get back to rap, you T-Pain-ing too much/ I’m a multi-millionaire/ So how am I the hardest nigga here?”

What “D.O.A.” did on Friday was end yet another small era in rap. And it left me thinking: Does Jay officially usher in/exit out every trend in rap? Read the rest of this entry »

It’s something every Gang Starr fan must experience to realize it’s OVER…

No longer satisfied with working alongside one of Hip-Hop’s greatest soundmen, Guru 8.0 (as he’s constantly evolving and upgrading) collaborates exclusively with “Super-Producer” Solar and their latest creation has arrived in the form of…what else?

AUTO-TUNE. Read the rest of this entry »

What do you do when your album fails to gain traction upon its release? You release outlandish statements of course! (Eh, Rick?) In a recent sitdown with GIANT Magazine, Lamborghini-Big-Bank-Bow had the audacity to rip into artists that relied on Auto-Tune for a song or two.

“It makes everyone feel that if they do it then they got a hit record. It’s like a slut that’s being passed around, and everyone’s jumping on it.”

I mean, where do we start? Nevermind the fact that Ron Browz and Read the rest of this entry »

Respect the melody and the fresh. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »