Under Maintenance Hang in there!

Hip Hop power player Jay-Z has no doubt garnered the attention of the entire Hip Hop industry with his latest release, Death Of Auto-Tune a.k.a. D.O.A.

The track, which was released earlier this month, sparked many debates and has prompted even more responses.

From Jamie Foxx to T-Pain, nearly everyone has had a say in the matter–even the creator of the software himself, Andy Hildebrand.

In a recent interview with The National Post, Hildebrand says Auto-Tune isn’t going anywhere.

“Artists come and go, but the Auto-Tune vocal is forever,” says 62-year-old Hildebrand, a former Exxon executive who developed his pitch correction software while working on an oil rig and testing underwater echoes for the presence of oil.

“I haven’t heard the Jay-Z song, but he’s a smart guy. I’m sure he knows Auto-Tune would be almost impossible to kill.”

Hildebrand put the software on the market in 1997 and says that within two years, 90% of the music industry was utilizing it.

It was even featured on early 2Pac and Blackstreet records, however it wasn’t until Akon released Trouble in 2004 that misused Auto-Tune revolutionized R&B.

A year later, Akon discovered T-Pain, whose use of Auto-Tune has changed mainstream music as we once knew it.

Hildebrand says Auto-Tune will keep swinging because today’s singers just can’t hit the notes anymore.

Death Of Auto-Tune is the first street single off Jay-Z’s Blue Print 3 which will be in stores on September 11th, 2009.

Source