Clipse

Essential Albums

  • Hell Hath No Fury
    Hell Hath No Fury
    Hell Hath No Fury

    One of the most anticipated hip-hop albums of the '00s, the second LP from Clipse is a masterpiece of Southern rap's vivid street-grind tales, traditional hip-hop lyricism and future-shocked funk. Brothers Pusha T and Malice had already cemented their reputation as the gifted, severe, tongue-twisting pals of The Neptunes, recording the hit 2002 debut Lord Willin' and appearing on Justin Timberlake's "Like I Love You". But the 2005 mixtape We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol. 2 removed the pair from those blippy, labyrinthine beats, putting a renewed focus on the type of nimble wordsmiths who would rhyme "glocks and keys" with "young black Socrates" (as Pusha does on "Momma I'm So Sorry"). On Hell Hath No Fury, Clipse take the cocaine-trafficking stories of once "regional" artists like E-40, Master P and UGK and deliver them with giddy wordplay and brash punchlines: "I'm more in touch with the keys, move over Alicia", Pusha raps in the opening track—but one example on an album full of wisecracks. And for all its savvy lines and fur-covered boasts, Hell Hath No Fury doesn't shy away from deeper emotions like guilt and paranoia. The record also comes at the tail end of The Neptunes' reign as the most avant-garde thing on the radio, with songs mixing buzzing noise ("Mr. Me Too"), clack-clacking percussion ("Wamp Wamp"), string overtones ("Ride Around Shining") and burbling synths ("Trill").

  • Lord Willin'
    Lord Willin'
    Lord Willin'

    The boldest, brashest hip-hop debut of 2002 came from the Clipse, two brothers who loved knotty wordplay, spaced-out future-funk beats and discovering increasingly gymnastic ways to describe the drug trade. Emerging from Virginia Beach—halfway between Outkast’s Atlanta and Mobb Deep’s New York—the Clipse’s Malice and Pusha T were steely, smooth, impossibly witty and, thanks to long-time collaborators The Neptunes, reinforced by some of the most forward-thinking beats of the decade. Clipse and The Neptunes had readied an entire major label album in 1999 before getting dropped by Elektra. Once The Neptunes became the in-demand hitmakers of the moment, the Clipse were signed as the first rap group to their Star Trak imprint. Though The Neptunes were producing hits for Britney Spears and Usher, Lord Willin’ was a completely uncompromising sucker punch of street-level slick talk and avant-garde beat work. The shockingly sparse lunchroom-table beat of the album’s lead single, “Grindin’”, was more minimal than anything on the radio—the rhythm and silences were as stark as anything by Run-DMC, but the glossy textures were teleported from the future. Malice felt it was too minimal, and Pusha T said he had a difficult time finding a way to even rap over such a peculiar beat, going as far as to write the song three times. However, their ice-cold delivery helped propel it to become the group’s first Top 40 hit, and a defining song of the early 2000s. The album’s follow-up single, “When the Last Time”, is ostensibly a club record, but swerves on abrasive synth noises, and features no shortage of the duo's ambitious rhyme combinations like “Obnoxious with the women/Hot tucked in the linen”. Not long after the release of Lord Willin’, the Clipse turned up on the debut solo single from Justin Timberlake, and helped launch a pop-culture phenomenon along the way. Meanwhile, a teenaged Kendrick Lamar honed his craft freestyling to the “Grindin’” beat. For decades, Pusha T stood forth as the critically acclaimed elder statesman of crime rap—and it was the unique rhyme combinations, vivid grind talk, breezy punchlines and cool demeanour of the instant classic Lord Willin’ that gave him his bona fides.

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About Clipse

Featuring brothers Pusha T and Malice, hip-hop duo Clipse became superstars in the ’00s with their menacing raps about the drug trade. • The Virginia Beach duo formed in 1994 after Malice returned from a two-year stint in the US Army. In 1996, they signed with Elektra, which wound up shelving their debut album, Exclusive Audio Footage. • Their longtime friend and collaborator Pharrell—one-half of the production duo The Neptunes—signed Clipse to Arista Records in 2001. • The duo scored a Top 40 hit with their 2001 single “Grindin’”, featuring thumping production from The Neptunes. Clipse’s raw debut album, Lord Willin’, arrived in 2002 and peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and No. 4 on the Billboard 200. • Clipse guested on Justin Timberlake’s 2002 single “Like I Love You”, his solo debut after splitting from *NSYNC. • After a pair of mixtapes, Clipse again teamed up with the Neptunes for another batch of cocaine-trafficking rhymes and unforgiving street fables: 2006’s virtuosic Hell Hath No Fury. The album made numerous critical year-end best-of lists. • Their third and final album, Till The Casket Drop, arrived in 2009 with features from Kanye West, Cam’ron, Pharrell, Yo Gotti and Keri Hilson. • In 2010, Clipse split up to pursue solo careers. Pusha joined Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music, while Malice found God on his journey and changed his name to No Malice. • Yeezy reunited Clipse on his 2019 Christian album Jesus Is King. They appear on the track “Use This Gospel”.

ORIGIN
Virginia Beach, VA, United States
FORMED
1992
GENRE
Hip-Hop/Rap

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