Hi, everyone. Snapthony Backtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Clipse album, Let God Sort Em Out.

Here we have a brand new album from legendary Virginia hip hop duo Clipse. (Not the Clips, okay?) Clipse consists of sibling lyracists Pusha T and Malice. Back in the day, these guys made some of the best hip hop of what we know as the "Bling era," mixing detailed coke rap imagery with slick unparalleled wordplay, and did so with a club appeal, thanks very much in part to the timeless production of Pharrell and Chad Hugo, aka, at the time, the Neptunes.

Now, while Clipse's original run was not a super lengthy one, they did drop two classic records. For years, it seemed like the chances of Clipse reforming were pretty much next to zero as the duo ended things on a relatively weak record for them, Til the Casket Drops, in 2009. But that was not the only reason this time period was rough for Clipse. There was also their former manager catching a $20 million drug conspiracy case that landed him a 32-year sentence, something that suddenly lent a lot more credibility to the coke-dusted bars the duo had built their name on up to that point. This is something I'm also sure sent a chill down the spines of anyone connected to the duo.

It's not surprising that Pusha T and at the time No Malice went their own separate ways, personally and creatively, with No Malice later dropping a few solo records that leaned into more of a Christian hip hop direction, while Pusha T made a name for himself as a key player on Kanye West's GOOD Music label, bringing some of the best and most fiery guest verses to various projects and singles he was working on at the time. And while it was a more or less symbolic move, Push was also named as the President of GOOD Music for a while, too.

But he has also been on his own solo trajectory over the past decade plus as well. However, it took a while for him to really start making the waves he was truly shooting for. His early projects, Fear of God and Fear of God 2, showcased promise but didn't have the ferocity or commercial appeal that the original Clipse stuff did.

And around this time, he was also building up his reputation for holding grudges, dropping tracks like "Exodus 23:1", a track that was loaded with lyrical shots aimed at Birdman and the Young Money camp due to a lengthy rivalry that spans back to a track that the Neptune originally didn't get paid for.

Now, while "Exodus" was well received by Push fans, Clipse fans, and GOOD Music label fans, it wasn't necessarily causing Pusha's rivals to break a sweat, at least not in the way he seems to be able to accomplish today. Because going solo really did cause Pusha T to have to re build things from the ground up. Even though he came into his solo career with a lot of talent at his fingertips, subsequent projects like My Name is My Name contained great highlights but lacked consistency. And his Darkest Before the Dawn project, while it was decent, it insinuated that it was just merely there to set things up for something bigger coming down the pipe. And whatever that something was certainly didn't happen immediately. It was essentially a prelude that was left unanswered concert.

For a while, as much as I was a fan of Pusha T as a lyricist, I just had given up hope that he was going to really get a super solid solo career going. But in 2018, he managed to revitalize his career, making this absolutely manic creative run Kanye was on at the time work in his favor. This was toward the beginnings of Ye's MAGA hat era, and he had committed to dropping multiple projects within a year that all landed between 20 and 30 minutes, one of them being Pusha T's Daytona, which was one of the best projects he dropped around that time.

It was a very short and sweet seven tracks, truly all killer and no filler. It brought Pusha T a level of attention he hadn't seen in years, not just because of how great the production and wrapping consistently was across it, but the closing track "Infrareds"'s confrontational bars that reference Birdman and Lil Wayne, as well as Drake's recent ghostwriter drama, were spicy enough to get under the skin of Champagne Papi himself and elicit a response on a song.

This obviously initiated the massive beef between Pusha T and Drake that ended in the track, "The Story of Adidon", which I think historically we can say is the most consequential diss track of the 2010s. Really set a new standard for diss tracks going forward in terms of ferocity and making a spectacle of exposing your opponent as opposed to merely just insulting them or outrapping them.

The resulting wave of hype that came to Pusha T after this not only renewed interest in him, but there was also very much this critical reevaluation of the Clipse catalog happening, too, at the time. On the 2019 Kanye record, Jesus is King, you saw Clipse reform for a great feature spot. Pusha T put out another solo album, It's Almost Dry, in 2022, which was also fantastic, and pretty much half the tracks featured Pharrell production, which, while it was not obviously a team-up with Malice, he did appear on the album's closing track, and obviously hearing that and hearing Pusha T over a lot of Pharrell production is going to bring back Clipse nostalgia.

So for a while, we've been gradually watching the cells of Clipse come back together with eventual rumors of a new album with Pharrell at the helm, with all the production, which, yeah, is not the Neptunes, but close enough. And the duo really devised a strategic rollout for this album that got a lot of people talking with not just a banger lead single, "Ace Trumpets". Then you had "So Be It" which featured this pretty salacious Travis Scott diss on the back end of the track. There was a killer Tiny Desk performance, too. And then interview after interview after interview after interview. Clearly, the duo really wants their intentions and ambitions here spelled all the way out.

But as far as the project here itself, for a comeback album like this, I feel like the thing that you want to say to get fans excited and interested is that, oh, it's business as usual. It's like they didn't miss a beat. But that's not what this record is. It's not 2006. Sure, I think it actually would be fun if Clipse got back together and then put out a bunch of bangers like "Dirty Money" all over again. I would like that. But not only is that time gone, but that's not what Clipse and Pharrell are doing here. On top of it, they have a wealth of experience they've gained since that time that is vital for applying to a project like this to actually keep it interesting and fresh.

Take the opening track, for example, "The Birds Don't Sing", featuring John Legend, which is pretty much unlike any song Clipse has put out before. It's a heart-wrenching tribute to their late parents, with Pusha T and Malice detailing their last memories and interactions around the times of their parents' deaths. Push provides these gripping details of their mother essentially prepping for her passing, which is actually insane, not only because of the details he brings up around this, but also the thing he seemingly admires is almost how methodical his mother was in the lead up to her passing, even theorizing that there was some intention or vision behind the way it happened on her part. I mean, again, go look back at the verse, because the thing he really points out toward the end of it is that there's a precision that she carried through all of it, which is like this inherited personality trait that is obviously echoed in the chest moves that it took for Pusha T and Malice to get to this point where they're at here with this record. I mean, even one of the biggest talking points I've seen people have around this album and its release is like, whoa, what a good rollout. Amazing rollout. Mind-blowing rollout.

Meanwhile, Malice's verse on the track is about their father who passed not too long after their mom. And his writing on this track provides a bunch of eerie, serendipitous parallels and beautiful memories that essentially gave him and Push like a foundation of ethics to operate from as adults. Still, though, there is a darkness that lurks there, and I feel like that's another major theme behind this album, especially when you're getting hit with bars like "See mine made sure he had every bass covered / So imagine his pain finding bass in the cupboard." While Clipse has always been known for rapping about drugs and rapping about coke, for a great deal of this LP, when drugs are brought up, it's more like a skeleton in the closet than a for celebration.

Then there's the Pharrell production on this track, which is a perfect complement to the content of the song. You have dramatic strings storing over classic piano lines and beats that bump with an old-school Kanye feel. Again, it really does show a different side of the duo. I think your usual stereotypical Clipse song with Pharrell in the mix would just be straightforward, coke-dusted, a club jam with a strong hook, but that is not what this is.

And that's the same thing for "Chains and Whips", too, featuring Kendrick Lamar, which sure does bring things back in a more braggadocious direction. But still, this is one of the most dark and evil songs Clipse has ever recorded. Between the sparse kicks and sinister organ chops and cavernous guitar leads, this thing sounds just devilish. The intro also gives "No Church in the Wild", Watch the Throne Kanye era vibes. The Kanye influence continues. Pusha T's opening verse on the song brings pretty much a classic Clipse flow and style, where it's not about the speed, it's not about the intensity, it's not about the word count. There's still a fair amount of space in between each of Pusha's bars as well, with each one reading like some mantra or even a Bible verse. It's a quality over quantity recipe where wit and reference points and evocative imagery reign supreme, with Pusha T sounding nearly demonic, describing a musical veteran of some sort who had some fall from grace.

And his threats to the guy are otherworldly, saying, "Crush you to pieces, I'll hum a breath of it / I'll close your heaven for the hell of it," which is a promise you're probably not following up on unless you're maybe a deity.

Meanwhile, Malice is sounding almost just as evil with bars like "Money's dried up like a cuticle / You're gasping for air now. It's beautiful." He even backs this up saying, "This is the darkest I've ever been," which, yeah, that's true. You sound absolutely scary on this dude.

Meanwhile, Kendrick is hitting us with a great guest verse with all these like "gen" alliterations throughout the whole thing. It's just great how much he sets up a target on this verse as far as the way he wants to build it and the way he's laying his words out and he just attacks it.

The following track, "POV", features this just effortless hook that still somehow is really catchy, even with the low and cold-blooded energy with which Pusha T delivers it. The odd rhythm of his flow and the inflections in his voice are just so attention-grabbing. But the highlights for me on the track are not only the great Tyler verse in the middle of it where he makes this hilarious simile to Pusha T moving "dirty white like Mosh pits." But then there's a stellar beat switch toward the back end of the track, over which Malice delivers one of the best verses on the entire album saying, "I'm watching new dudes rap just to OD / If I didn't give you both sides, that wouldn't be me / If I lie to myself, I can sell it to me / I've sung along with rappers I never believed."

"So Be It", which I mentioned earlier as a single, still sounds killer in the midst of the album. I'm sure a lot of you already know this, but the song is very much based on this really great sample chop of a Talal Maddah track, this Saudi Arabian composer who dropped this song back in 1970. Pharrell matches these chops with some reverse percussion. All the vocal drops of "this is culturally inappropriate" just sound absolutely hilarious and bring a bit of levity to this otherwise very grim-sounding song.

As far as the flows, the grooves, it's very much old-school Clipse, that bumping bass, all of that. But once again, it just sounds slower, gloomier, stranger, like if a clip song were being directed by David Lynch or something like that. Then consider the closing verse that I also, again, mentioned earlier, that is pretty much a Travis Scott diss exploiting a moment in time where the guy was going through a breakup with Kylie Jenner, which is a pretty normal experience. Lots of people go through breakups, and the details of it that Pusha T describes didn't even seem like that damning. But still, I feel like the way that Pusha T brought that up on this record and was willing to capitalize on it just further contributes to the evil vibes on this album. He will take this man's lowest moments and laugh at them on this record just to get a rise out of him, just to create something to talk about, because he's just put it into his code on this album that he has to be as ruthless and as merciless as possible.

Then with "Ace Trumpets", which was the lead single for the record. This was an It's Almost Dry type beat. We've heard this before from Pusha T and Pharrell coming together. But with Malice once again in the mix, this vibe, this sound is reinvigorated, especially with Malice showcasing such a mastery of the English language here with this consistent da da rhyme scheme, which sure, he doesn't switch it up like crazy, but it is still super impressive how consistently he's able to stick with it without varying, without even breaking a sweat, lining up lines like, "I done disappeared and reappeared without a voila / And dressed in house of Gucci made from selling Lady Gaga."

From here, we go into a pretty strong midpoint run where Pharrell's production just does a lot with a little. Whether you're talking about the haunting synth patches and arpeggios and overpowering bass on "All Things Considered", a track that also ends with a great whispery cerebral feature from The-Dream. And then there's also "MTBTTF", which stands for Mike Tyson blow to the face", which is proof that there's still gas in the tank with the original Clipse concept, because there are a lot of detractors that will say, Oh, Clipse, they just make coke rap. They just make rap that's super materialistic, which sure, that's true. But what I think is so interesting and exciting about the duo, even on this album, is how much they can just closely stick to such a familiar theme, but still find new ways to talk about it, whether they are likening that to a Mike Tyson blow to the face with the additional layer of "blow."

I love deeper bars into the track, like "Took change and touched chains like King Midas / Imitation is flattery, they seem like us / But only 300 bricks can make you Lianitus." The Sparta reference!

So again, it's how deeply can you drill into these familiar ideas, but still dig up gold each time. Because I can tell you, after years of reviewing and observing the music world, there are lots of artists who try to do that, and they don't. And over the course of their career, they either switch up or they lose sparkle, drive the capacity to stay interesting. I mean, prior to this album, I don't think I've ever heard anybody make a reference to the financial concept of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, especially over such a fun and funky groove.

On "Fico", we have this really raspy, melodic, killer Stove God Cooks hook. He's been doing some great books on many a number of Griselda projects in recent years, and it's great that he's brought that same talent to this. I mean, if there is a match made in heaven between a coke rap old school and a new school, it is Stove God, it is Clipse.

Then as I'm digging deeper into the album here, I'm just waiting for a weak link in the chain, a filler or a necessary track, a forgettable song, a track that's just somehow boring or bad, but it's just not happening. Even "Inglorious Bastards" provides some excitement, not only because of its funny and quirky horn samples, but also you have Ab-Liva on this track who obviously provides memories of Pusha T and Malice's connections to the old Re-up Gang, a rap collective based out of Virginia that they were affiliated with back during their heyday. Liva still sounds great, and you have all of these vocal drops and just very saturated vocal mix throughout the track. The whole thing sounds like a really grimy old-school Re-up Gang mixtape cut, which is quite nostalgic, but still somehow slips into the progression of this mostly very evil-sounding album.

"So Far Ahead" provides a bit of epic gospel fusion with some otherworldly choral passages, 3/4 time signature on the verses, too. Pusha and Malice providing some very steady triplet flows.

It's just so damn good. It makes this album just the textbook definition of coming back with a vengeance. This album is like at the end of the movie when you think the bad guy is dead, but then he just gets back up and fills the protagonist with lead or slices them in half with a chainsaw. I mean, I don't want what I'm about to say here to come across the wrong way, but if Pusha T called me tomorrow and said to me, Hey, the reason this album is so good is because me and Malice sold our souls to the devil. I would have to believe him. There's no way that's not true, especially with bars like "Coke spots all over, like leprosy / It's a dark spirit tucked behind the flesh you see / Got every single word of the hex I need / The death I breathe, the death I see, look so good on you / The coffin wood on you, closed casket / Because I'm only siccing wolves on you," which is from the title track of the album.

It seems like this track and this whole album, the sole mission of it is to feed heads and say things that make other rappers wake up in a cold sweat and just to shiver in their boots. There's also a very solid Nas cameo happens toward the end of this cut with a nice beat switch, too.

The closing track, in a lot of ways, is an epic finish, not only because of the production that Pharrell provides, but in some ways, we do see some lyrical allusions to the events that led to the original Clipse breakup in the first place, Pusha T talking about barely making it out. Again, this is where we see that shift of context from this just merely being your standard coke rap album. Because this record is also very much about being out of that world and having a touch of temptation and maybe a bit of survivor's guilt, too. Having your past haunting you and facing down those demons by becoming a bit demonic yourself in a way.

But yeah, this was a hell of an album. This was a hell of an album. I mean, it's maybe not as high concept as some of the more narrative-based records that have dropped so far this year, regardless of genre. But for an album that is essentially an assembly of songs, there's a lot of consistency of quality here and just a super high level of execution on every single track. Every single solitary song brings something special to the table and contributes positively to a no skip tracklist, which is why I'm feeling a strong 9 to a 10 on this LP.

Anthony Fantano, Clipse, Forever.