Nas Weighs in on Auto-Tune Craze, Jay-Z’s ‘D.O.A.’

During a recent promotional interview for his headlining spot on the Rock The Bells tour, Nas gave the Boston Herald a mouthful on the dire state of hip-hop and the fad that is Auto-Tune. "It's not my thing," Nas said of T-Pain and Kanye's controversial gift to hip-hop. "It's hot, but it's not what I do. It's not what I really listen to either."

The always outspoken MC conceded that the current backlash against the synthesizer heavy music of the past few years has been a long time coming and like any trend of the moment, it will fade away, only to become a novelty again some years down the road.

"Auto-Tune's gonna be the (expletive) like 10 years from now," he said. "We're gonna all remember that time when Auto-Tune was what everyone was doing. And you need moments like that. It's like, 'Wow, remember when everybody had synthesizer beats? Or remember when everybody used to do cuts in their choruses? Or use this kind of sample or use that kind of drum machine? It's just another moment in music.

Nas also made it clear that he isn't simply jumping on the current "bash Auto-Tune" bandwagon, since he feels that tracks like Jay-Z's "D.O.A." are an extension of the message he shared back in 2006 with his album "Hip Hop is Dead." "Everything comes to an end and goes to a new phase, " he said. "So records like 'D.O.A.' have to be made right now. That's why I did 'Hip Hop Is Dead.' These records have to be made. It's rappers making records that resemble what the real rap sounds like to shake up all this other (stuff)." Never one to compromise his truths, the Queensbridge rapper continues to stand firm behind his declaration about the death of hip-hop. "It died -- we're just picking up the bones in the graveyard and banging drums with the bones and re-creating what was there."