Review Summary: So Be It, So Be It.
I'll be the first to admit I'm likely far from qualified to review a rap album. Maybe 10% of all of hip hop appeals to me, as typically the subject matter is so far from my personal life experience that at best I can have a distant appreciation for the message without really engaging with the music. I'm a metalhead, always have been and always will be. So why this band? Why has Pusha T been the most interesting rapper to me over the last decade or so? Why, of all people, do the luxury coke rappers appeal to the middle-class atheist white guy from Missouri?
We'll get to that.
Clipse are back after over fifteen years seperated to a staggering amount of hype, as "Your favorite rapper's favorite rappers" are finally reunited following Malice's self-imposed exile. Look no further than the features Pusha and now Clipse are able to secure, as rap's heaviest hitters are seemingly always willing to throw down for their projects (Jay-Z, Kendrick, Nas, KanYe, Tyler etc.). The rollout has been spectacular, and the group has endeared themselves to the massives on a wild interview run as they reveal just how compelling and interesting they are in a sea of clout-chasers and posers. This is part of their methodical brilliance, as a generation of hip-hop fans got to learn their story in the lead-up to the release.
"Chains and Whips", "P.O.V." and "So Be It" are the most immediate of the tracks here, and served as perfect promo singles, as they feel the most at home for longtime Clipse fans. They feature some of the stankiest-stank face beats on the album. Pharrell Williams returns and, it must be said, he absolutely bodies his recent work with masterful beats that range from triumphant ("By the grace of god") to downright chilling ("Chains and Whips"). He also has some sung hooks on the album that are far from middling. "MTBTTF" (Mike Tyson Blow to the Face) is another that will hit hard for Clipse fans, and excellent features are prevalent across the album as well. Kendrick of course delivers, the man is operating at a godly level right now, but Tyler the Creator and Stove perform admirably as well. It's really saying something that the "worst" feature (or more accurately, least fantastic) on the album is from Nas, and his verse was rock-solid. I won't go too far into individual tracks here, because this thing has zero skips. Zero. It front-to-back rules. I will say, though, that the swerve from the emotionally devastating opener (with John Legend and STEVIE ***ING WONDER features) to "Chains and Whips" is an all-timer.
You know I know where you're delicate
Russell Westbrook averaged a triple double five times, after it being done only once in history, way back in 1961. Even by the second time, the shine had worn off, and by the fifth it wasn't even considered that wild anymore. LeBron has averaged 27/7/7 for so long that we now
expect it, and it is no longer rewarded with applause and admiration for the feat. I draw these NBA comparisons because...that's Pusha T. Even if you think he didn't achieve his god level until Daytona, he has had flashes on every release. And since Daytona specifically (to include "The Story of Adidon"), the man has not missed. The signature cerebral, layered delivery is here in force, as he surgically weaves in and out of verses with bars that you don't even realize are bars until you've heard it for the fifth time. That's just Pusha's game. And while his brother can certainly inspire fear, Pusha is the villain that makes you dread the knock at your door with his visceral performance (
Your soul don't like your body, we help you free it), expressing his absolute disgust with you in his inflection and delivery in a way that Malice doesn't often utilize. He typically goes first, setting his brother up for the knockout punch which may even come with a beat change.
Never leaving home without my piece like I'm Mahatma
I say all this because Malice (and to a lesser extent Pharrell) is likely to get much of the attention with this album in his return. You don't need that degree in cocaine calculus with Malice, as his bars are expertly crafted, immediate and often devastating in their brevity. They come at you so fast that it's nearly overwhelming, but where Pusha is the assassin, killing you without you even realizing it, Malice is more like your preacher, making you question your life choices at every turn (
I never thought twice what the pressure would be, cause n****'s chains look just like oppression to me).
There's an exhausting, inevitable argument that Malice is better than Pusha, but the truth is they are both operating on a level, it seems to me, that other rappers can only hope to achieve at their peak. It's been established that Malice is the no-cursing deacon that Pusha idolizes, so after Push sets his brother up with the first verse and often the hooks, Malice is left to deliver the knockout punch. Welcome back, Malice. I think Pusha missed you.
So, what
is it that appeals to me so much about Clipse, specifically? Well...it's the honesty. That I don't believe for a moment they aren't genuine. And the fact that they have grown as humans and artists so much, to the point of putting their parents' deaths (in arguably the saddest song I've ever heard) and a miscarriage into it, that we know Pusha has been killing it on his own while Malice was finding his place in life for the past fifteen years, only lends itself further to their integrity and heightens the impact of this devastatingly effective album.
I couldn't be further removed from the life that serves as the setting for Clipse's subject matter, but Malice has me questioning my integrity and Pusha has me looking over my shoulder at every turn, boogeymen that demand atonement for my poor choices in life. And, if anything in particular, Ex-President Push and Father Malice preach about integrity the most. Don't act like something you aren't, stand by your people proud and strong, and for ***'s sake don't make these two angry.
