Jay-Z Recruits Harvey Keitel, LeBron James For "D.O.A." Video

The video for Jay-Z's "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" premiered last night, June 28th, following the BET Awards, where Janet Jackson capped a night of Michael Jackson tributes with a brief speech thanking fans for their support and Jay took the stage to perform his latest single. The video opens up with a hat tip to Jay-Z's recent distribution deal with Warner Music, as the label's CEO Lyor Cohen is seen chauffeuring the rapper to an abandoned warehouse, opening the luxury car door for Jay-Z and saluting Jigga as he exits the vehicle. As Rock Daily previously reported, Blueprint 3, Jay-Z's first album on Roc Nation, will be distributed by Warner Music's Atlantic Records.

From the warehouse, Jay-Z bounces from the jazz club to the Italian restaurant, where the chef comes out to talk to Jay. (We're pretty sure the restaurant is Harlem's own Rao's, an ultra-exclusive eatery that doesn't normally allow cameras to film inside, let alone in the kitchen, where Jay-Z, the chef and guest Harvey Keitel start a game of high-stakes poker.) If a cameo by Winston Wolf wasn't enough, Jay is later seen playing one-on-one basketball with LeBron James. Jigga's odyssey ends with a trip to the barber to get his hair cut.

And like every good video, there's pyrotechnics, as big necklaces emblazoned with giant A's for "Auto-Tune" are blown-up along with today's bright retro-inspired wear and, of course, boxes of Auto-Tune. As Rock Daily previously reported, The Blueprint 3 is out September 11th, exactly eight years to the day that the original Blueprint was released. Last night's BET Awards also featured Jay-Z performing "D.O.A." live, which you can watch over at YouTube.

Related Stories:
• Jay-Z Calls For "Death Of Auto-Tune" With "Blueprint 3" Cut
• Kanye West Nixes Auto-Tune on Jay-Z's "Blueprint 3"
• Jay-Z Buys Out Def Jam Contract, "Blueprint 3" Heads to Roc Nati

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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