Nearly a decade after the release of JAY-Z‘s D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune), T-Pain has finally revealed that he felt personally attacked by rap lyrics on the track.
In a recent interview with Drink Champs, T-Pain reaches back into his archives to discuss his first reactions to the 2009 song, admitting that he did feel targetted with the diss. The hip-hop legend shared why he felt that way stating, “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.”
He continues, “If I woulda said f***in’ blue Yankees are terrible, everybody woulda been like, ‘Oh you dissin’ Jay-Z now?’…Anytime [Jay] says something is wack, it’s trash.” JAY-Z did however, clarify in an interview with Hot 97 in 2009 that the song was not aimed at his fellow rapper, T-Pain. Hov said at the time, “The guys who did it, did it great. T-Pain, he does great melodies. If you listen to Kanye, great melodies. If you listen to [West’s] ‘Say You Will’ or ‘Heartless,’ great melodies. [Lil Wayne and T-Pain’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.”
T-Pain also revealed that he had recorded a response diss track to the song but his managers told him to take a break, “We were supposed to take a break for four months, I ended up taking a break for four years.” After the release of “D.O.A”, T-Pain ran into JAY-Z a couple of times but has said that the air has been cleared regarding the topic.
Check out the full interview above.
In other music news, Kanye West’s DONDA has received a new release date.
