Clipse's long-awaited return has met a couple of hiccups label-side regarding their upcoming project Let God Sort 'Em Out.

In a new GQ profile on the Virginian duo, Pusha T brings up a conflict the group had between them and Def Jam. The rapper claims that the label, a subsidiary of UMG, wanted to scrub Kendrick Lamar's feature off one of the tracks on the record. "They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse," he says, "which of course I was never doing." The group has since dropped from Def Jam in favor of Jay-Z's Roc Nation.

This is how Pusha T describes their decision to leave the label:

"They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing. And then they wanted me to take the record off. And so, after a month of not doing it, Steve Gawley, the lawyer over there was like, ‘We'll just drop the Clipse.’ But that can't work because I'm still there [solo]. But [if] you let us all go…"

Pusha T had been associated with Def Jam since 2010 when he signed to Kanye West's GOOD Music imprint following his work on West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. So, it surprised no one that in October 2024, No Malice – Clipse's other half – announced that they had signed with Def Jam to release Let God Sort 'Em Out. This partnership has since come to an end, solely due to Lamar's presence on the track "Chains & Whips". Def Jam, being a part of UMG, likely did not want to get involved in another feud with two of the Drake's biggest haters; Drizzy loves to sue.

Pusha calls the whole situation "stupid," not just because lawsuits have no place in a rap beef, but also because Lamar's verse did not stoke the flames of any OVO beef. According to interviewer and writer Frazier Tharpe, "None of the bars in Kendrick’s otherwise excellent verse could really be perceived as a shot or even subliminal." They likely considered having the authors of "The Story of Adidon" and "Meet The Grahams" on the same project to be bad optics for UMG amidst their lawsuit.

UMG was possibly the biggest monetary winner of last year's beef, hosting Drake's OVO label and Kendrick Lamar's pgLang. The feud culminated in Drake's highly publicized legal battle with UMG. While the ruling is still inconclusive, the ripple effect of the suit has already set a precedent: Def Jam dropped Clipse and Pusha T as a soloist due to legal concerns. While this seems unhealthy for music as an art form, to Drake, perhaps it's God's plan.