So… we talked a lot about the infamous Drake/Kendrick Lamar beef last year since it was the thing that everybody was talking about, but let’s not forget that while Kendrick managed to humiliate Drake to both critical and commercial acclaim, Pusha T cast the first stone in Drake’s weakened armor.
But enough talking about Drake… for now.
So, you remember Clipse? The rap duo of Pusha T and Malice (or No Malice)? Remember such classics as “Grindin'”, “What Happen To That Boy?” and “Mr. Me Too”? Yeah, you couldn’t escape hearing that beat during the mid-2000s. Long story short, the duo split in 2010, and we know that Malice turned into No Malice and found religion. Then of course there was Pusha T’s solo career where he took off from being signed to G.O.O.D Music with Kanye West, wound up becoming President of the company, went through his ownn beef with Drake where he came out the victor no matter how people spin it, and then exited out of G.O.O.D Music because… well, guess.
There have been rumors of a Clipse reunion ever since Malice appeared on “I Pray For You,” a track from Pusha T’s last album It’s Almost Dry, and now 16 years since Clipse’s last album, that reunion came true! It was announced on May 29th that we were getting a new Clipse album, and judging from the singles “Ace Trumpets” and “So Be It,” we were gonna be in for some great hip-hop coming from these two… well okay not just these two. Pharrell produced the whole album (as it was recorded in Louis Vuitton HQ in Paris), and we got an interesting set of features like Tyler The Creator, Nas, Stove God Cooks and one certain feature that I’ll leave blank right now.
So, did this album live up to the hype or was it ‘CULTURALLY INAPPOPRIATE?’
Having listening to it a few times now, I gotta say that this is stellar. Fantastic, even. Like something that’ll bring a tear to your eye.
Speaking of which, that’s what the first track does. “The Birds Don’t Sing” is a song where they deal with the loss of their parents, with Push hearing the news about his mom from his wife and how he’s glad she met his son, but realizing he won’t remember her. Malice reflects on how the deaths were too close to each other, alongside thinking that should he rap again after a long hiatus. Hearing and looking at the lyrics does make me think a lot about what’ll happen when your parents pass on. John Legend and Pharrell doing the hook was solid, and we get a closing outro from Stevie Wonder saying to show your love to your mothers and father and to cherish the moments you have with them.
You even told Dad you wished y’all never splitted
See, you were checkin’ boxes, I was checkin’ my mentions
Sayin’ you was tired but not ready to go
Basically was dying without letting me know
I loved you met Nige, hate that he won’t remember you
Two things that break my heart is what Novembers do
And T follows you, now mind you
DD calls you, Gene finds you, was that your vision?
Precision, while I’m reminiscin’
It all hits different, Ma, listenYour car was in the driveway, I knew you were home
By the third knock, a chill ran through my bones
The way you missed Mama, I guess I should’ve known
Chivalry ain’t dead, you ain’t let her go alone
Found you in the kitchen, scriptures in the den
Half-written texts that you never got to send
Combin’ through your dresser drawer, where do I begin?
Postin’ noted Bible quotes, were you preparin’ then?
I can hear your voice now, I can feel your presence
Askin’ “Should I rap again?”, you gave me your blessing
The way you spelled it out, there’s an L in every lesson
“Boy, you owe it to the world, let your mess become your message”
Shared you with my friends, the Pops they never had
Yeah, for those that think that they only do coke raps… well, take a look.
Then that leads into “Chains and Whips,” a track that has some history to it, as it features the one and only… Kendrick Lamar!!! Yep, I didn’t mention this earlier: this was originally supposed to be released under Def Jam, but they wanted Clipse to either censor or remove the verse from the song. They didn’t budge, and now this record is on Roc Nation, so that’s that. You may be thinking to yourself “why?” but in case you’re unaware: Def Jam is a part of UMG, and guess who’s suing them because they lost a rap beef? But getting back on topic: yeah, this track is sick, and all three of them did their thing! (Oh and really, Def Jam? Releasing a Justin Bieber album same day as this one?)
You run from the spirit of repossession
Too much enamel covers your necklace
I buy bitches, you buy ’em sections
You buy watches, I buy collections
Misery’s fuelin’ your regressionRichard don’t make watches for presidents
Just a million trapped between skeletons
This the darkest that I ever been
The diamonds make you taste peppermint
You ain’t thrive in the snow like it’s The Revenant
And send orders back down and keep shovelin’I’m not the candidate to vibe with
I don’t fuck with the kumbaya shit
All that talent must be godsent
I send yo’ ass back to the cosmics
The things I’ve seen under my eyelids
Kaleidoscope dreams, murder, and sirens
I also need to mention “So Be It” considering the third verse coming from Push was aimed at Travis Scott, as Pusha called him “disloyal” because of him showing up while they were recording to play his stuff. It was specifically the track “Meltdown” from UTOPIA… only it was without the Drake verse dissing Pharrell and Push; during the Drake/Kendrick beef, he was playing both sides from performing with Future when “Like That” plays on tour — basically choosing to stay on the winning side. (Also, Travis Scott released a project same day as this?)
“P.O.V.” delivers a grave warning to the clout-chasers in hip-hop, with Push’s verse on ‘flavor-of-the-week’ modern rappers who might be poppin’ now with viral hits and big streaming numbers but can’t sustain long-term interest. There’s also some digs at hip-hop “thousandaires” who have been in the game for a long time but have nothing to show for it, along with dissing ‘these Zeus network niggas’ aka reality stars chasing the bag. Then there’s Tyler, The Creator’s verse where he mentions someone he made music with trying to sue him (some say it’s directed towards Playboi Carti), and at the end he mentions how he come to terms with the idea that he outgrew his heroes, which some speculated as a dig at Kanye West, which is reasonable enough. Then there’s Malice’s verse where he raps about how his era of hip-hop used to sell dope while the new era is using it.
There’s also been some shots thrown at his own targets like Drake on “All Things Considered” with the line….
Niggas is writing’ statements and say they didn’t
Dream of taking you down, the hate hittin’
Wanna show you around but they J Prince’ing
Pusha’s verse references him missing his mother and mentions that his wife has a miscarriage and never wants to mention that to his son, while Malice’s verse is about how he grew up in the coke game while showing a family dynamic when it comes to fatherless women and their kids, as well as seeing some of his friends in prison (and while he’s clean of that, he still has some blemishes). Oh, and you also hear The-Dream doing a weird outro to it.
“M.T.B.T.T.F” aka “Mike Tyson Blow to the Face” does highlight some of Malice’s best bars on the album:
All you keyboard killers in your feelings
Mad you ain’t trending
Mad, got you trickin’ on your women
Mad I don’t hit ’em, I just spin ’em
Gunning and I’m grinning
In a Bugatti in my denim
This is the result of my vision
React with precision
But God only knows my intention
But selling dope is a religion
The hammer’s in position
I can show niggas the difference
We go through the next tracks “E.B.I.T.D.A.” & “F.I.C.O.” Yes, the tracks are named after financial metrics, the former standing for “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization” and F.I.C.O being a widely used credit scoring model in the U.S. They ended up being solid tracks, but the latter I’m more into since you get a great hook delivered by Stove God Cooks with a damn good amount of grit and soul in there.
Miami niggas like Big Perm ’cause they numbers was Faizon
Cubans showed me nothing but love
When it come down to it, every Stringer Bell just needs an Avon
Who won’t sweep it under the rug
Speaking of grit, more of that comes with “Inglorious Bastards” with their raw story telling and cinematic production; they’re teaming up with longtime collaborator Ab-Liva of the Re-Up Gang, doing a hushed delivery on his verse. On “So Far Ahead,” Malice’s verse does have some lines that caught my attention, like “No mistaking me for the reverend / Ushering the money, my confession” and “I done been both Mason Betha’s / I done been at both intersections.” The former is a reference to Usher and his well-known album Confessions, and the second is a reference towards Ma$e, the rapper that was big in the late ’90s before he retired from rap to follow a religious path.
Then we get to the closing tracks. “Let God Sort Em Out/Chandeliers” is the penultimate song (well, it’s more like two tracks in one) with the first half being Clipse and the latter half belonging to Nas, and all three of them killed their verses easily. The final track “By The Grace of God” sums up the past of both rappers who have been in the coke game and managed to turn their life around and be bigger than before with the fact they got away with so much, only… by the grace of God.
Yeah, this is a fantastic album from front to back with no skip-worthy tracks, the production coming from Pharrell is excellent (even if it’s the not the same without his Neptunes partner with him), and yes, both Pusha & Malice delivered on the bars without having lost a step (especially Malice), having delved into more than just your standard coke rap. Yes there’s stuff about their various feuds (mostly Pusha’s beefs with other rappers), but there’s some vulnerability covered from the loss of their parents and looking back at their lives. In fact, they rap better than most of their younger rappers out there. We were told to believe that rap is a young man’s game, but in recent years, it shows that rappers in their late 30s, 40s and even 50s still got something to say on wax and make it unique to listen to.
FINAL VERDICT: Buy It. This, on the other hand, is culturally appropriate.
LET GOD SORT EM OUT is on Roc Nation and is available on CD, vinyl, cassette, digital download and on streaming services. Link to buy is HERE.