auto-tune – MVRemix Urban

Will Smiff Dogg talks his career, New Death Row Records, Auto-tune, and Lil Wayne!!!

Please, put the name Will Smiff Dogg into your mental rolodex. With no trademark infringements in sight, this guy has created his own lane in the world of old hip-hop rappers. This young entrepenuer has transformed from your typical money making rap artist into a lucrative brand. If you haven’t googled or Bing the name Will Smiff Dogg yet, we’ll give you a second to do so (please come back). In a world of digital downloads, internet visibility is everything. Will Smiff Dogg has the internet presence, and over 3,000,000 mysace views/plays to prove it. We know that Myspace has it’s share of frauds, so feel free to look at Will Smiff Dogg’s 1,700 facebook friends (personal + fan age) for further solid proof of his dominance. From his early ties with the Dogg Pound, and All Access DVD to a publishing deal with Missing Link Music Publishing, Will Smiff Dogg is the artist/businessman to bring your label into the new era of unlimited digital sales. A& R’s everywhere should be scrambling to draw up a contract for this brother right now.

Born (Eddie Laners III) in New Orleans, LA., where we’ve seen some of the hottest names in Hip-hop come out of (Lil Wayne, Juvenile, Master P) Will Smiff Dogg experienced a lot of jazz culture that influenced him early on in life. “My dad had a lot of albums, so I always listened to music as a child, thanks dad,” Will says candidly. Will goes on to state that his mom even grew up with the Neville Brothers. He then states, “I grew up in New Orleans, and I visit all the time, so I know Lil Wayne and Baby had it rough growing up, New Orleans is one of the hardest places in America”. Then at the age of 5, Will moved with his family to a suburb of Seattle ,WA. called, Bremerton (Quincy Jones, Sir-Mix-A-Lot area). Being on the Westcoast, Will Smiff Dogg was influenced by a lot of Westcoast music, but was also introduced to music from artist such as Jaz-O, Notorious B.I.G, LL Cool J, Big L, Wu-Tang Clan and Mobb Deep by one of his best friends. “When I first heard Biggie “Unbelievable”, with the R Kelly sample, I was instantly hooked”, Will remembers. As a young hiphop artist growing up on the Westcoast, Will was quickly influenced by artists such as N.W.A, Snoop Doggy Dogg, MC Eiht, DJ Quik, The Dogg Pound, Tupac, and E-40. People would soon began to compare Will Smiff Dogg (then Lix) to most of these artist, and encourage him to get a record deal. The irony is that Will Smiff Dogg was living on the Eastcoast at the time when Daz Dillinger and Bigg A picked him to be a part of an unsigned group they put out called DP Next Generation in 2005. Daz Dillinger, the Death Row Records MVP was responsible for a lot of music that came out of Death Row Records in the 1990’s. “I loved Death Row records when they were an empire in the 90’s. They had the best combination of talent and were unstoppable at the time”, Will states. When asked about what he thinks of the New Death Row Records, Will quickly responds, “I think the New Death Row Records is a dream come true for the West Coast and for hip-hop, I would love to work for Lara Lavi, as either a Death Row Artist, a Paralegal, or both…. Somebody please tell Lara Lavi to call me after reading this.” (A& R’s from other labels, don’t feel excluded)

When asked about the new diss against Autotune, by Jay-Z and other rappers, Will Smiff Dogg Had this to say, “My two singles off the “College Made me do it”, and “We are the World” had auto-tune, and I got huge response and love from around the globe. Then all of a sudden someone puts out a song called D.O.A and a lot of DJ’s start feeling the negative about auto-tune. Personally, I can rap, I just don’t sing well, so Auto-tune saves me a lot of money on studio time, and hiring wanna be diva singers. I love it. Auto-tune helps to feed black people. While back in Bremerton a few months ago, I seen a lot of my homeboi’s using auto-tune, and actually getting their music played at local clubs, this was never the case before. Auto-tune has a far more positive effect on hip-hop culture, then one or two peoples negative outlook on it.”

Will Smiff Dogg now lives in the New York Area (Northern New Jersey), and still feels like an outsider after 7 years in the area. He has met a lot of the big name rap stars in New York like Jay-Z, Jadakiss, Youn Jeezy, Pharrell, Prodigy, Jim Jones, Fabolous, Tony Yayo, Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes and Rev Run, but has yet to collaborate with any of them. Will just finished two albums in less than 4 months. Two songs off the “College Made Me Do It” album were produced by a Shady Records producer/engineer Marleik Patterson. Those songs are “Tookie Williams”, and “Justify my Cuzz”. “Tookie Williams” will quickly let you know why Tupac’s legendary producer Daz Dillinger (Ambitionz as a rider) picked him up for the unsigned DP Next Generation group in the first place. When asked about the “Dogg” part of his name, Will explains, “I always had respect for Snoop and the Dogg Pound. When I was chosen to be a part of their DPGC Idol movement in 2005, It taught me a lot. Even before I met Daz Dillinger and Kurupt, Snoop Dogg always seem like that guy cool cat in the music business that everybody loved. Dogg is man’s best friend.” WSD is currently seeking a deal with the right major record label, so A&R’s contact him immediately!

His mixtape “Doin it doggiestyle in NYC” mixtape hosted by DJ Cosinus has had 5,000 downloads worldwide in the last month. You can download it free at thatcrack.com, or coast2coastmixtaes.com. Will Smiff Dogg is currently writing a movie script, that he hopes to sell to major production company, He also wants to sell his single “Perfume” (music video coming soon) to a frangrance giant, and his main goal is to receive an honest record deal by the end of 2009. Mr. Dogg has received airplay on BBC Radio 1 in the UK, Jango.com, Black music radio in Germany, and a few Canadian radio stations. Become a fan, set up a meeting with his manager Guillermo, and be sure to pick up his new mixtape “We Jerkin with all this Gucci & Swagg” mixed by DJ Cosinus (Slip-n-slide DJs), featuring songs from Stak City, Snoop Dogg, Gucci Mane, and more…available now. A& R’s and exec’s, Will Smiff Dogg is your answer!!!!!

Jay-Z knows what’s on your mind. And on mine too, come to think of it. What is with you Rappas Ternt Wannabe-Sangas?” Why you gotta drown your songs with a sorry excuse for a voice that’s so annoying that the only reason people aren’t bleeding out of their ears at the club is because they’re too wasted to notice the (T-)pain their ears are in? Hova’s new single, “Death of Auto-tune,” is stirring up almost as much controversy in the hip-hop world as Chris-Brown’s-fist-versus-Rihanna’s-face. I know, I know; it’s a stretch, but you know what I mean. Jay-Z knows how to get attention when he wants it. Just in time to sell some Blueprint 3 records too.

Make no mistake; auto-tune’s made its rounds since way before hip-hop’s less vocally gifted jumped on the bandwagon. Remember Cher? Ever since T-Pain came onto the scene with Rappa Ternt Sanga, he brought with him that wonderful little program called Auto-tune, and detonated it all over the face of hip-hop. To give T-Pain credit though, he does know to write a catchy hook. That’s why “Buy U a Drank” was on every radio DJ’s database, “Blame It (on the goose, gotchu feelin’ loose)” was hot at the clubs, and “Freeze” was spewing out of every kid’s iPod ear buds. The guy knows what he’s doing.

But when you start having Lil Wayne and Snoop “singing” about erupting lollipops, we’ve got a problem. For the fans who love the electric atmosphere of a good hip-hop concert, no matter how good those songs sound now, they’ll never be performed live. Well, they might, but it won’t sound anything like the album version – I promise. Kanye West would know. His entire 808s & Heartbreak album was auto-tuned to pitch-perfection, and it did phenomenally on the charts when it first came out and everyone was oohing and aahing over the utter craziness that is an album fully saturated with voice distortion. While I have the utmost respect for Kanye as an artist, ego or no ego, “Heartless” and “Amazing” didn’t last long in my playlist after the novelty and catchiness wore off. I have an Auto-tune Quota, and “Love Lockdown” unfortunately filled most of it.

Back to Jay-Z’s declaration of war on auto-tune: he’s careful to not name names, but really, you know who you are (i.e. any rapper who’s tried to actually sing one of his auto-tuned songs live and have it turn out like a half-rapped, half-shouted mess). Ironically enough, Kanye is producing most of Blueprint 3, though he promises to keep the auto-tune far, far away (is that why Jay-Z didn’t call him out?). Whenever you pour on the hate though, you always get some back, especially if dissing you means instant publicity. Jay-Z’s gotten his share of criticism for “D.O.A.” already from younger rappers who think he’s getting too old for the game, but I have to give Jay the last word: “Get back to rap, you T-Pain’n too much.”