The song was released as a digital download on June 23, 2009, and as the first single from Jay-Z's 11th studio album, The Blueprint 3.

The song made its world premiere on the New York radio station Hot 97 on June 5.

The song won Jay-Z his eighth Grammy Award, and his second for Best Rap Solo Performance.

[3] Jay-Z himself stated that the point of the song was to "draw a line in the sand", saying that while he appreciated the use of the Auto-Tune by artists with an ear for melody like T-Pain and Kanye West, far too many people had jumped onto the technology and were using it as a crutch.

[1] One of the partial inspirations for Jay-Z to write the song was hearing Auto-Tune being used in an advertisement for Wendy's fast-food chain.

[6] The music video (directed by Anthony Mandler) was shot and aired immediately after the 2009 BET Awards on June 28.

[citation needed]The video shows Jay in scenes such as a deserted factory building, a bar with a band, and playing card games in a kitchen.

Actor Harvey Keitel cameos in the video as a card player in the kitchen of New York's exclusive restaurant, Rao's.

On June 9, R&B artist Trey Songz released an unofficial remix of the song on his blog.

Renamed "Death of Autotune Kellz", it was directed at artist R. Kelly for using the effect on a previous mixtape.

Royce da 5'9" has released two remixes of it, one by himself and one with fellow Slaughterhouse members Joe Budden, Crooked I, and Joell Ortiz.

Singer Avery Storm has also made a remix using the songs instrumental supporting the death of auto-tune.

Rapper The Game released a diss track in response to the song entitled "I'm So Wavy (Death of Hov)", going at Jay-Z for what Game perceives as him being behind the times in the hip-hop industry, and his stance that Jay-Z being 39 years old means he's too old to stay in the music scene, evidenced with lyrics such as "D.O.A.?

The biggest records of the year all had Auto-Tune — who are you to say people don't wanna hear it?