Kelly for using the effect on a previous mixtape. Renamed "Death of Autotune Kellz", it was directed at artist R. On June 9, R&B artist Trey Songz released an unofficial remix of the song on his blog. The video ranked at #17 on BET's Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2009 countdown. It did not win either of the categories, losing to T.I.'s " Live Your Life" and Eminem's " We Made You" respectively. The video was nominated for Best Male Video and Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Basketball player LeBron James also makes a cameo appearance. Actor Harvey Keitel cameos in the video as a card player in the kitchen of New York's exclusive restaurant, Rao's. The video shows Jay in scenes such as a deserted factory building, a bar with a band, and playing card games in a kitchen.
The music video (directed by Anthony Mandler) was shot and aired immediately after the 2009 BET Awards on June 28. On June 27, 2009, a trailer for the video was released. Jay-Z sampled a portion of The Notorious B.I.G.'s freestyle "Wake Up Show Freestyle". song " You're Nobody ('Till Somebody Kills You)".
The song makes a reference to The Notorious B.I.G. The title is also a reference to the medical term "D.O.A." or " Dead on Arrival". It made him feel that what was once a trend had become a gimmick. 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. 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. They then removed all the songs that contained Auto-Tune from The Blueprint 3 to further their point. and thought about making an anti-Auto-Tune song.
However, Kanye heard the instrumental by No I.D. (Death of Auto-Tune)", Kanye West and Jay-Z had recorded an Auto-Tune song.