Wyclef Killed the Auto-Tune Star

Oh man, please say it's over! Auto-Tune vocal effects (that pitch-correcting software that gives vocals that robotic sound) have dominated the airwaves since Lil Wayne's smash hit "Lollipop," but with saturation already reaching Susan Boyle-like overkill, Wyclef Jean and Nick Cannon are helping lead the way to its demise.

Wyclef, a superstar producer and former Fugees member, paired up with that Drumline kid who's always on Mariah Carey's arm to create the biting parody "Mr. Autotune." The just-released track pokes fun at artists who overly rely on machines to do their "singing."

Here's a look at some of the lyrics:
Cannon: Do I need singing lessons?
Wyclef: Hell na. All you need is swagger we gon' run it through the computer.

In the past year, even Kanye West jumped on the Auto-Tune craze, but it appears the backlash is now in full-effect. In fact, West admitted that Jay-Z decided to remove all the Auto-Tune tracks he recorded for his upcoming Blueprint 3 album, and just last Friday, the rapper premiered his own biting salvo "DOA (Death of Auto-Tune)" on NYC's Hot 97. Sure, the end of Auto-Tune would mean the final tick in T-Pain's 15 minutes, but it's not like the hatted-one was headed for overtime anyway.

It just goes to show, technology can help you take shortcuts, but at the end of the day, you still need talent to avoid a tongue-lashing from likes of Jay-Z and Wyclef.

Jay-Z photo courtesy of Jonathan Mannion; Nick Cannon photo courtesy of Roger Erickson.