Nobody actually thought Clipse would get again collectively.
The duo, composed of brothers Pusha T and Malice, is well-known for setting a brand new precedent for rap all through the aughts. In the event you wipe the mud off and assume again, you’ll most likely keep in mind them for hits like “Grindin’” or “When the Last Time,” each produced by the Neptunes — one other duo, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo — and each off of their debut, “Lord Willin’.”
On the floor stage, Clipse was an insanely proficient rap duo out of Virginia Seashore, Va., intently linked to Pharrell, who would go on to be one in all hip-hop’s most in-demand producers.
“I had just turned 8 when we moved from New York to Virginia,” Malice remembers. “I think it was a bit of a culture shock for me… I remember thinking how the people in Virginia just talked different.”
However the brothers, born Gene and Terrence Thornton, shortly observed that rather a lot was occurring round them. Malice remembers after they used to “congregate down at the ocean front” and freestyle: “everybody would come out there.”
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than they “bumped heads” with Pharrell, who was a buddy of a buddy.
“I had heard about Pharrell and he had heard about me,” Malice says. “One day, Pusha decided he wanted to rap on a song… it was called ‘A Thief in the Night.’”
“Pharrell was like, ‘Y’all should be a group.’ And we agreed, and it was easy… it all came together in Chad’s room in his attic.”
However their first brush with fame got here even sooner than their debut, with the discharge of “The Funeral.” On the time, the brothers had struck a take care of Elektra Data with some assist from Pharrell, however the firm in the end shelved their would-be debut “Exclusive Audio Footage,” which contained the tune.
Clipse have been launched from their contract shortly after, however the challenge would stay on by means of the love of followers — or, “family,” they are saying.
“For me, we have been superstars once we shot ‘The Funeral’ video in ‘99 in Virginia… I mean, that was it; what else was there to do?” Pusha said. “The video debuted on HBO, and we shot it at home. For me, that was the Grammys.”
“That was the mountaintop,” Malice chimed in.
“That was the mountaintop!” Pusha echoed.
Those early Clipse days were special, and the duo saw themselves at the center of a cultural shift and as a driving force in the rap game at the time. And Virginia, oddly enough, is where it was all happening.
Malice, left, and Pusha T of Clipse have cemented themselves as legends of East Coast rap.
(Cian Moore)
It had a lot to do with Teddy Riley — the father of New Jack Swing — who set up camp in Virginia Beach along with his Future Recording Studios. That became a hub in the ‘90s for established artists like Luther Vandross and Whitney Houston as well as rising stars like Timbaland and the Neptunes.
“It was a time of creativity,” Pusha said. “Whether it was Pharrell and Chad up the street or my brother working with Timbaland in junior high school … the energy of Virginia was at an all-time high.”
“A lot of people in Virginia are very creative and aspire to make something out of this music thing,” Malice added. “And I think what we’ve carried out is present them that it is vitally tangible and doable and reachable.”
However it will all come to an finish in 2010, when Pusha T and Malice went their separate methods. Albeit an amicable cut up, it was nonetheless abrupt, with the latter experiencing a non secular reawakening that set a tough distinction to the drug-dealing-infused lyrics that usually occupied their music.
It was actually a shock to followers, however each would stay shut. In line with Malice, it had rather a lot to do with the teachings their mother and father bestowed upon them.
“The way our parents raised us, that family is absolutely everything … there is no bickering, there is no animosity,” he stated. “My dad was really big on family, and not only family, but brotherhood. And I don’t even mean like, just biological brotherhood. I mean brotherhood and all that it entails.”
“We always used to say in the earlier Clipse days, ‘want for your brother what you want for yourself,’ and it’s something that we hang on to with both hands,” he added.
So, the door all the time remained open for a Clipse reunion. And there have been hints.
They appeared on longtime collaborator Kanye West’s “Jesus Is King” in 2019, and Pusha T’s solo album “It’s Almost Dry” boasted a powerful Malice function on observe “I Pray for You” in 2022. On the latter, Malice is again, seemingly as if he by no means left the sport:
“When I was in the mix / opened up your nose like I’m cuttin’ it with Vicks / Slavin’ over stoves like I rub together sticks / Paved another road so my soul would coexist / But Heaven only knows, I won’t dig another ditch.”
Malice made a uncommon visitor look on Pusha T’s fourth studio album, “It’s Almost Dry,” in 2022.
(Cian Moore)
In line with him, there have been “quite a few baby steps involved” earlier than an all-out Clipse challenge was underway. However an enlightening dialog along with his father, who died in 2022, made it “make sense for my psyche.”
“One of the last conversations I had with my dad, I asked him what he thought about me rapping again. And why that was important to me was because my dad was definitely in a church. He was a deacon,” he recollects. “And just to hear him say that he thought that I had been too hard on myself, I didn’t even expect him to say anything remotely along those lines.”
“And he was like, ‘You know what to do now.’”
It took Clipse round two years to finish “Let God Sort Em Out,” befittingly, completely produced by Pharrell. Its rollout led with “Ace Trumpets” and the infatuating “So Be It.” The latter observe ingeniously flips an obscure pattern of “Maza Akoulo” by Saudi Arabian musician Talal Maddah. Notably, it additionally takes goal at artist Travis Scott over his alleged disloyalty.
It highlights an ongoing dissatisfaction that the brothers have with the present state of rap, an general panorama that they are saying is “flawed.”
“We were coming to set standard and reset the table,” Pusha says.
“We had many opportunities to come back and do something, but it just wasn’t the right time,” Malice provides. “Money’s not going to dictate anything we do. We don’t ever compromise our art for anything. Whatever we do is going to be done at the highest level, and it’s going to feel right.”
It was no shock that the album featured verses from the West Coast’s Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, the Creator, who’re among the greatest wordsmiths out proper now.
On “Chains and Whips,” Pusha T opens up lethally: “The question marks block your blessings / There’s no tombstones in the desert / I know by now you get the message.”
Malice follows go well with, assuring “Your lucky streak is now losing you / Money’s dried up like a cuticle / You’re gasping for air now, it’s beautiful.”
[Warning: Video contains profanity.]
Lamar is an actual stand out on the album, and it’s no shock. Final yr, he tore aside Canadian rapper Drake throughout 4 diss tracks, which hit its peak with “Not Like Us.” The observe ended up hitting 1 billion streams in January 2025, received 5 Grammy Awards, and broke the web with its efficiency on the Tremendous Bowl.
Evidently, the Compton-born rapper and longtime buddy of Pusha T has been on a roll.
“Let’s be clear, hip-hop died again / Half of my profits might go to Rakim / How many Judases that let me down? / But f— it, the West mines, we right now / Therapy showed me how to open up / It also showed me I don’t give a f—.”
Of the collaboration, Malice says “when it comes to Kendrick, I think we are of the same mindset of how important the culture is and that we keep it in existence.”
Certainly, that is one thing that Clipse have all the time maintained they usually’ve taken situation with in up to date rap. Particularly given the longevity they’ve — Malice and Pusha T have been within the recreation for the reason that early ‘90s and are 53 and 48 years previous, respectively.
“I don’t think people have been in the game this long and competed at this level, you know?” Pusha says. “I think it’s a new frontier. We’re at a point of really cracking the ceiling to longevity in rap.”
“Not only cracking the ceiling; I feel like we kicked down the entire door,” Malice jumps in. “Looking backwards over the years, rappers have been getting away with murder!”
“We’re here coming for the goal every time. And I think that’s the problem: A lot of people are in the game just existing,” Pusha provides. “Not competing, you’re just in it existing in a minor artistic way.”
If “Let God Sort Em Out” wasn’t spectacular sufficient, Clipse are again on the street, enjoying sold-out reveals throughout the nation. On Saturday, they’ll contact down in Los Angeles on the Novo as a part of their first tour as a duo in 15 years.
Malice, who refers to followers as “the family,” is eternally grateful to be again doing what he does greatest for the individuals he loves.
“They [the family] see through a lot of the circus acts that’s going on in hip-hop and they speak for us when they show up, when we have sold-out shows, in the record sales,” he says. “We don’t take none of that for granted. It’s a real thing and crucial to our existence.”
