Why everyone's so excited about the new Clipse album, Let God Sort Em Out
Today on Commotion, culture critics Pablo The Don, Huda Hassan and Matt Amha join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about the return of the cult-favourite rap duo.
We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, including coverage of Drake's latest single and Kanye West's upcoming performance in China, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube:
Elamin: Pablo, maybe we should set the scene here and just remind people why this drop is a big deal.
Pablo: I mean, for me, Clipse's Grindin' alone is, like, the most-played beat at a lunch table in every school in America. I think everybody was trying to recreate the Grindin' beat on a lunch table. So for me, this Clipse reunion is huge. It's been 16 years since they've been together. Pusha T was the president of G.O.O.D. Music for a time. Malice found God randomly. And then Pusha had a very solid career.
WATCH | Official video for Grindin' by Clipse:
I know a lot of younger people probably know him best from the Drake beef, but in general Pusha T has had such a solid solo career, that I think rivals a lot of different people that are in the rap game right now. I think this reunion is for people my age, and people who are younger should really get invested and really go back and learn about Clipse — and then listen to this project, too.
Elamin: But usually when an album comes out, there's a nice little rollout. You get all of these interviews. But there's been some great shade thrown at people like Travis Scott. Matt, let's talk about the origins, let's say, of Pusha [and] Malice. Because their original sound was sort of known as coke rap — mostly drug boasts, right, over incredible beats, and just having a great time on the streets…. How do you compare where Clipse are now, to where we first met them?
Matt: When it comes to the Clipse, I think of them as being uniquely Virginian. They have a uniquely Virginian sound. And I think when we think of Virginia, we think of The Neptunes, but we need to think of Clipse too. They're just as indelible to that. And I think that the whole coke rap thing has become a pejorative in some way. It's become a marginalizing way to think about these guys. It's like calling Scorsese "a mob filmmaker," you know? These are guys that are using the sale of drugs, the use of drugs, the production of them, to tell this grander story about the "inner city," about America, and I think they do it to great effect, frankly.
But this record, for me, is adult contemporary rap, and I think we don't see enough of it. I think they're in some ways among the first non-superstars — not Jay Z, not Snoop, not LL Cool J — to add their names to this tradition in a viable and lucrative way. I think this is evidence of a genre that is maturing. People forget that rap is still in its nascent years in a lot of ways. So this example is actually really important. And contrasted with the likes of André 3000, who goes on interviews and says, "Well, I'm old now and I don't have anything to talk about" — which for me is such a loss, because it's a beautiful thing to be able to watch the stories of these men and women from the time that they are young and figuring things out, to the time they are entering their 50s and are now comfortable in life, you know? I think it's an example that particularly younger fans of the culture, people that have a pejorative view of the culture, need to see more.
Elamin: I want to pick up on the idea that calling it coke rap is pejorative. I think that is true for certain audiences. I certainly don't think that's true if you follow hip-hop, right? Which is to say that these are the colours that you paint with. What you paint can be Starry Night. What you paint can be the grandest thing in the world. I do think that they're particularly attracted to these colours in terms of painting them, and they're better at it than everybody else.
You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Panel produced by Amanda Burt.
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