Hey, hi, and hello, everyone! Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd, wearing the two most obnoxious colors I can possibly find in my closet at the same time. I'm here to talk about an album that has become quite the topic in the hip-hop sphere as of late, and it's not even out yet. That would be the forthcoming Clipse album, Let God Sort Em Out, which features — from what I understand — wall-to-wall production from legendary producer and longtime collaborator, Pharrell Williams.

Now, a momentous return like this should be enough to stir up conversation around this record. But we also recently covered an interesting story on this channel about the release of this album and Clipse moving off of Def Jam's roster over a Kendrick Lamar verse that is yet to be released. And seeing that it is going to be on this album because UMG wanted the verse censored, potentially over what it was saying about Drake, Pusha T responded to calls to censor this verse by just standing on Clipse's artistic and creative freedom and said, "No, we're not doing it." They bought themselves out of their deal, and now we are going to hear this album unedited, which I'm pretty excited about.

But another story is now coming out of this album because Clipse have seen fit to release another single from this project — this one titled, "So Be It". (The first one being "Ace Trumpets," which in and of itself, I thought was pretty great.) This new track, though, features fantastic Pharrell production with all these reversed bits of percussion, classic Clipse flows that take me back to the Hell Hath No Fury era, and on the back end of the track, in the very final verse of the song, Pusha T actually goes out of his way to throw out some pretty harsh bars for none other than Travis Scott. Within 24 hours, Pusha T has launched a full-on hate campaign against this man.

"I don't take it as personal as I should. It's Travis; he's harmless! I'm not into what he — his whole makeup. I just took it there."

If we remember Travis Scott's Utopia album, that does feature a pretty massive cut with Drake on it: "Meltdown," in which Drake very directly insults Pharrell, threatens to melt down a bunch of Pharrell chains that he had. So considering how closely Pusha has worked with Pharrell over the years, how much his of career he owes to Pharrell, and how loyal he tends to portray himself to be —yeah, that does make sense that he would associate Travis with that track and hold him, at least in part, responsible for its release and the disses and insults from Drake that it communicated. But apparently, according to this GQ interview featuring Pusha T, it runs, I guess, a little bit deeper than that. Pusha T describes some recording session that Travis Scott was interrupting, saying:

"We weren't into the music, but he wanted to play it, wanted to film us listening to it. And then a week later you hear 'Meltdown,' which he didn't play. He played the song, but not Drake's verse.

"He don't have no picks, no loyalty to nobody. He'll jump around whatever he feels is hot or cling onto whatever he feels is hot.

"So that's where my issue comes in — like, dawg, don't even come over here with that, because at the end of the day, I don't play how y'all play. To me, that really was just like...he's a whore. He's a whore." –Pusha T

Now, in response to quote and this problem that Pusha T has taken up with Travis Scott, there have been a lot of responses saying: "Drake didn't record his verse on the song until last minute," "Pusha T is completely lying and messing up the timeline here..." I think a lot of these points and retorts are missing the point. Regardless of whether or not Drake's verse was recorded before Travis Scott showed Clipse the song or after, the point still stands that Travis Scott, for some reason, must think highly of Pusha T and Malice, as well as Pharrell — or at least that's how he would like to come across when he is playing them his music and seeking some validation. "Oh, hey, here's the music I made. Listen to it: isn't it great? Isn't it hot?" So you go through the process of seeking out the validation of these people, show them your music, and then afterwards, you invite somebody on to that same album (or even song!) that you showed them to crap on them.

I don't know, to me, that reads as a little weird.

While yes, it is true that Travis Scott isn't fully responsible for every single thing that Drake says, you are allowing him to come onto your record for a feature that is undoubtedly going to be one of the biggest features on the album. In fact, when Utopia came out, the "Meltdown" verse from Drake was one of the most highly-discussed verses, and it was because of the insults to Pharrell. I mean, Travis can't play completely stupid in this instance. He had to understand on some level the gravity of what was being said in that guest verse and what was being communicated. And if he didn't, what you're telling me here is that this man essentially allows anybody who is relevant to come onto his album and do anything they want without actually paying attention to the messaging or the quality of it. Which, I mean, if that is, in fact, the case, that's kind of sorry, and that's kind of sad. And frankly, a super piss-poor way to approach making any kind of art. So again, there have been a lot of accusations against Pusha T — that he's misunderstanding or wrong about the timeline, that he's going at Travis Scott for no reason whatsoever — when in fact, it is pretty clear that this is a response to the "Meltdown" verse. It's not like this is coming out of nowhere.

And a third characterization that I'm seeing thrown at Pusha T in the wake of all of this is that the guy can't do an album rollout without dissing somebody, or attacking somebody, or going at somebody when like... Drake shits on people on his albums all the time. In fact, every single time he has an album rollout, you can guarantee there's going to be a series of articles of, "Here's all the people Drake mentions in a negative way on his album!" And again, Travis Scott did have that "Meltdown" verse on his record, and it was a big point of discussion with the original Utopia rollout. He also obviously had Drake on "Sicko Mode," which for years, people have been aware of the fact and have talked about Drake's verse on that track being an insult to Kanye.

So it's not like there's no historical precedent here for people being like, "Okay, Travis Scott likes to play neutral party here because he's just the curator. He's the director; he's the guy masterminding the album and letting everybody do their own thing." But you're still allowing people to have a platform on these very big, popular albums that you, as the artist, benefit from the drama of if there does happen to be an insult, or a diss, or whatever in that verse. You can't completely absolve yourself of any and all connections or responsibility that you have in that situation as the guy who's the main brain and the final decision-maker of what is and is not on that album — even if it is a song or a verse that is finalized and recorded last-minute.

While calling Travis Scott a "whore" might be a bit much, I understand where Pusha T is coming from on this. That Travis Scott — and this could have a lot to do with the era of music and hip-hop culture that he comes from — [Pusha T] just doesn't trust him because he doesn't really know where his allegiances lie.

But let's get to the actual diss Pusha T laid out against Travis in this track in the final verse where he says,

"You cried in front of me, you died in front of me / Calabasas took your bitch and your pride in front of me / Her Utopia had moved right up the street / And her lip gloss was poppin', she ain't need you to eat / The 'net gon' call it the way that they see it / But I got the video, I can share and A.E. it / They wouldn't believe it, but I can't unsee it / Lucky I ain't TMZ it, so be it, so be it."

You could take from a pretty surface-level read of this, that Pusha T saw Travis Scott in a pretty emotional moment post-Kylie Jenner breakup, where he was crying and Kylie Jenner, I guess, doesn't really need him because she's rich and famous and successful on her own through her brand, through her cosmetics. Which like, okay; for sure, it's insulting. It's an attempt at being insulting.

But this doesn't really get to the heart of all the things Pusha T has been saying about Travis Scott in the media as far as his issues with him and why he's going at Travis in the first place. What Pusha is addressing here is some other topic and issue, and one that, frankly, to me, is not even really all that revelatory or embarrassing. Why is this even a thing? So you're telling me a man who had a child with a woman... and they broke up... He was emotional about it after? He cried? I don't know. That sounds normal to me. That sounds like a normal reaction somebody might have to a breakup with the mother of their child.

I mean, sure, it does portray Travis in a light where he's at a low point in his life. But I don't know if saying this about the guy is all that damning, even if there is the "video evidence" that Pusha T is talking about. I mean, we're going to see video evidence of Travis Scott crying? He's crying over a breakup? Again, I feel like this is a pretty normal thing for somebody to feel. I mean, for sure, if such a thing were to come out, you would have a contingent of hip-hop fans out there: the type of guys who, the moment you say something nice about a female rapper's music, they go, "She's not going to let you hit, man! She's not going to let you hit!" The type of morons who would say that would probably laugh at Travis Scott crying on video and be like, "Oh, man, he's a simp! What a loser."

But those guys are fucking idiots anyway and would most likely just continue listening to Travis Scott regardless — and would just be saying everything they're saying for hits and likes on the internet. At the end of the day, when the rubber hits the road and we really talk reality and people's everyday life, experiences, and interactions, crying over a breakup with somebody who you have kids with isn't crazy. That's not exactly the most damning exposé I've ever heard of in my life.

Frankly, I look at Travis Scott a bit weirder, considering he's seeking the approval of people who he has no issue with platforming disses and insults against on his own albums. To me, that feels weirder.

So while, yes, it is true that I don't exactly begrudge Pusha T the wish or desire to hurl a few insults to Travis Scott due to the "Meltdown" verse, I do think the whole rollout that he's doing here with these bars and the interviews and mention after mention after mention — just making this 24-hour music news cycle just purely about Travis Scott — seems a bit much, especially considering that in the Pusha T social circle, there are certainly bigger fallouts and bigger fish to fry in 2025. Namely, Kanye West, who Pusha T, also in a recent series of quotes, questioned his manhood. I mean, in the wake of all of this, Kanye even has Dave Blunts defending him! I feel like if you have Dave Blunts coming to your defense, you've lost; you've already lost. There's no way the winner in any situation is being defended by Dave Blunts.

I think that's all I have to say about this for now. I'm curious if Travis will respond in any way. My guess is that he most likely won't. But hey, I could be completely wrong on that. And if I am, I'm sure we'll talk about it. Let me know what you think about all of this madness down in the comments. I'm sure you will.

Anthony Fantano. Pusha T. Travis Scott. Forever.