Review Summary: Clipse run around the marathon fantastically, but just before the finish line, they trip.
If
Hell Hath No Fury is the artistic flourishing of two rappers reaching their lyrical heights, and
Lord Willin is the great albeit uneven debut of that same duo, what the hell is
Til The Casket Drops? Most likely, it’s a celebration of the grave success, both because of
Lord Willin’s commercial success and
Hell Hath No Fury’s almost classic respect amongst hip hop heads, and it’s a well-deserved for the duo’s fantastic output. Because of this sheer celebration, it has made a duo formerly known for their fantastic focus, Clipse has become a bit lazy with their rapping, and that probably leads
Til The Casket Drops to be their worst album. Is that bad? Not at all!
Til The Casket Drops sort of changes around one MC in particular of the duo. Formerly being completely indisguishable from his brother Malice, Pusha T’s flow is quickly becoming instantly recognizable, and as opposed to his brothers low-key tone, raps in a more upbeat, arrogant tone. However, as a result, his rapping sort of suffers, with Pusha T dropping some of what are easily his worst lines of his career. During Pharrell’s synth swerving pop track “I’m Good”, Pusha T raps in a way that sort of resembles that Young Jeezy in sheer lack entertaining lyricism.
Just as Pusha T changes himself so drastically, Malice does little to nothing to change his former self. This makes for an awkward listen at times, hearing two completely contrasting voices, one representing the future, all slick flow and no lyrical stature, and the other representing all lyrical impressiveness and the same low keyness that their other releases represented. The first half of the album generally represents both of them at their height of their new/old selves, particularly the descending piano anthem “Popular Demand (Popeyes)” and the snow-packing synth package “Showing Out”, both of which featuring semi-renowned fellow coke rappers Cam’ron and Yo Gotti. When Clipse try to stay themselves more than they celebrate, it’s generally successful.
And the album’s second half falters because of Clipse’s general failure to recognize that. Other than the boastful chants and blaring horns of “Door Man” and ghastly dark “Never Will It Stop”, the second half is a terrible mesh in Pharrell’s synthesiser tars and generally mediocre lyricism along with some incredibly terrible ideas. “All Eyes On Me”, in particular, falters just because it’s Clipse trying their hand in a club hit and brutally failing.
Til The Casket Drops generally succeeds because of the fact that production is completely solid, once again mostly from Pharrell and Chad Hugo, and that Clipse themselves haven’t become completely depraved MC’s just yet. But let’s hope that they realize that Pusha T sounds much better as a low key MC meshing with his brother Malice, rather than bouncing in his nice coupe from his coke money. Because of he keeps doing that, he might get caught!
