Because the day of Clipse’s long-awaited reunion album, Let God Type Em Out, approached, the celebrated rap duo composed of brothers Terrance “Pusha T” and Gene “Malice” Thornton was the discuss of hip-hop streets close to and much. These roads look a lot completely different than what the duo stepped foot onto on a heat summer time day in 2002 with their debut album Lord Willin’. CDs have been the popular mode of listening at the moment, whereas digital music was largely discovered on peer-to-peer file-sharing providers like Napster, Kazaa, and Rhapsody. There was no Fb, Twitter, or TikTok to unfold the phrase, as magazines, DJs, and radio stations served as the first channels to find what was sizzling and the need-to-know.
Within the grand scheme of popular culture, few issues from the early 2000s nonetheless maintain main relevance within the now mid-2020s, and even fewer have been in a position to preserve it with out conforming to an ever-changing business. Not Clipse, although; you’ll be hard-pressed to search out any egregious variations between a Clipse album in 2002 and one in 2025. Coke raps delivered from pristine Pyrex measuring cups are nonetheless the primary product, whereas Pharrell — now sans Chad Hugo — remains to be crafting left-of-center beats for the duo to sort out. The next energy remains to be the one power with extra dominion than Clipse; they initially let go and let God with Lord Willin’, and that precept stays on Let God Type Em Out.
Clipse nonetheless being revered as “cool” in 2025 will be attributed to many issues. Pusha T’s solo profession after the duo’s disbandment to shut the primary decade of the 2000s stored their legacy alive whereas additionally including gas to the loud “may have”-“ought to have”-“would have” requires a reunion. Their early proximity to each Pharrell and Chad Hugo, who continued to thrive into the 2010s and past, ensured that the Clipse story would reside on as The Neptunes’ story can’t be advised with out it, as seen in Pharrell’s 2024 animated biography Piece By Piece. There are actually extra issues to clarify Clipse’s relevance almost three a long time in, however ask Pusha T and Malice they usually’ll most likely inform you it has a lot as music to do with their music because it does their dedication to by no means be lower than the henchmen – each as rappers and as individuals – that rode with Jesus Christ on the quilt of Lord Willin’. To know Clipse is to know two issues: perseverance and precept.
These traits are deeply entwined into the ethos of Clipse, and followers have been as soon as once more reminded of it throughout Pusha and Malice’s promotional run for the album, because the duo detailed a label dispute – the newest of many of their profession – that they had with their now-former label Def Jam over the legendary imprint’s try to censor and even take away Kendrick Lamar’s verse on “Whips And Chains.” In response to Pusha, Def Jam claimed that their request was over Kendrick’s point out of a “trump card,” although he believes it’s tied extra to the label’s ongoing lawsuit with Drake and their perception that Kendrick was subliminally dissing Drake on “Whips And Chains” (which, as of press time, he was not).
Regardless, the audacity of Def Jam to (allegedly) make such a request was a grave violation of Clipse’s rules (or, extra particularly, Pusha’s, who hardly conceals his disdain concerning the scenario every time he speaks about it). That yet one more Clipse album, this time their first in roughly 4 presidential phrases, was held up but once more, pressured Push to… nicely, push via to make sure that hip-hop lastly obtained their huge second. Def Jam agreed to launch the duo, however that wasn’t sufficient for Pusha; as confirmed by the rapper’s supervisor Steven Victor, Ziplock P reportedly paid a “seven-figure sum” to free each himself (as a solo artist) and Clipse from their contractual obligations. A distribution cope with Roc Nation was then signed, granting a easy runway for Let God Type Em Out to take flight.
Label disputes are embedded into the Clipse DNA as a lot as Virginia, coke raps, and The Neptunes beats. The primary time round offered itself as a considerably thrilling problem to show doubters fallacious and overexceed expectations. The second time ushered in frustrations and questions concerning the necessities wanted to be met to be able to function with out restriction. Each time after that? Properly, that’s simply plain disrespect, contemplating their accolades and cultural impression. After hurdling label points in 1999 (when Elektra Information shelved their authentic debut Unique Audio Footage), 2004 (when work on Hell Hath No Fury – launched in 2006 – was halted after a label merger left them caught on Jive Information, who uncared for them in favor of pop acts), and 2018 (when Pusha T confronted censorship within the aftermath of “The Story Of Adidion”), you may perceive Pusha’s disgust when he and his brother as soon as once more confronted off with Trade Rule No. 4080. It went in opposition to the precept of rap and enterprise, however one other probability to triumph in opposition to lesser beings wasn’t out of attain for Push and Malice; it’s what they at all times do.
With out their perseverance, there’s no “Grindin’.” The document served as a reset for Clipse after their Elektra Information troubles and eventual freedom. It was one other probability for Pusha and Malice to grab the eye of the music world – and that they did. “I’m tryna present y’all who the f*ck I’m,” Pusha calls for on his opening verse for “Grindin’,” and the world listened. Clipse has by no means been pushed by the glitz and glamour of the music world, and Malice says as such to start out the tune’s third verse when he quips, “My grind’s bout household, by no means been about fame.” Twisting and contorting oneself for a chart-topping single or album, a Grammy, or different accolades isn’t one thing Clipse has finished or ever plans to do. To discredit Clipse for any perceived business shortcomings is to not know of the world that Pusha and Malice come from and converse to: one that’s pushed by precept, integrity, and loyalty. So when Pusha ends “So Be It” with a sequence of scathing photographs towards onetime labelmate Travis Scott (“You cried in entrance of me, you died in entrance of me / Calabasas took your b*tch and your satisfaction in entrance of me / Her Utopia had moved proper up the road / And her lip gloss was poppin’, she ain’t want you to eat”), that isn’t a clout chaser-esque pursuit for notoriety; it’s only a easy violation.
Their rules are why they took problem with Birdman’s refusal to pay Pharrell for producing his 2002 single “What Occurred To That Boy.” That rift jump-started what would flip into one in every of hip-hop’s largest and longest-running beefs, just because Pusha isn’t one to face for any disrespect. So when Lil Wayne stood beside Birdman, Clipse mocked him with “Mr. Me Too” and Pusha later held up a mirror to point out Wayne his ugliest blemishes with “Exodus 23:1.” When Drake tagged himself into the meat, Push — ever the skilled low-road taker — made a uniquely crafted mirror for The Boy with “The Story Of Adidon.” Even Kendrick Lamar referenced Pusha on “Euphoria,” his personal vitriolic assault in opposition to the Toronto rapper, which the brothers known as “unbelievable” and “a grasp class.” Nevertheless, Malice would love to not discuss these sorts of issues and folks. “I despise… I may vomit each time I’ve to listen to about another person’s title in our interviews,” he mentioned in a New York Instances interview. Regardless of this, he’s not shocked that it comes up. “I’m cool as a result of I’ve seen it earlier than,” he continued. “I didn’t anticipate a lot to alter.” If the music business wasn’t going to alter within the many, many years since 2009’s Til the Casket Drops, then Pusha and Malice certain as hell weren’t going to both.
With Let God Type Em Out now out there, Malice (a grandfather!) and Pusha (a great-uncle!) are a testomony to how rappers can age gracefully in a supposedly “younger particular person’s recreation.” The “idea” of ageism in hip-hop isn’t actual, and Clipse’s reunion is a chief instance of how time doesn’t at all times name for change. Rap’s stigma as a so-called “younger man’s recreation” wrongfully ignores its denizens who actually grew up with a tradition that simply reached center age itself. There may be at all times an area for what as soon as was to nonetheless be; it’s only a matter of how keen one is to face agency on their beliefs, belief the craft, the methods, and individuals who by no means did you fallacious, and by no means lose contact along with your id. Pusha T and Malice have finished all the above as Clipse. They managed what their rap abilities and creative imaginative and prescient allowed them to, and as for the remaining, nicely, they let go and let God type ’em out.
