The Clipse: Out to Lunch
The streets were buzzing like an antagonized swarm of bees when the Re-Up Gang put out their mixtape We Got it For Cheap Vol. 2 this year. The notorious brothers Malice and Pusha teamed up with the undeniably talented Sandman and Liva to work on something they could actually get out to the fans; the fans that have been patiently waiting for the label drama they find themselves in to subside and bring them back to the shelves.
With the multi-platinum selling Lord Willing considered one of 2002’s most critically acclaimed albums still fresh in our heads, it is only a matter of time before the Clipse are back in our headphones, homes and cars with the long overdue sophomore project, Hell Hath No Fury. The track listing for the album has changed four times to date, so one can only assume that when it finally finds it way into our CD changers we will be once again seduced by the reality and straight street style that only Malice and Pusha are capable of.
One thing the Clipse have never done, is compromise themselves and attempt to change up to follow suit when it comes to keeping ‘fresh’ on the scene. Their blueprint as Pusha explains in this interview is always going to remain the same. Ain’t nothing changed.
How is the label situation looking, did you get your situation sorted out with Jive and Arista?
The label situation is definitely still in limbo. As far as these litigations go, there are always motions that are thrown into the mix that prolong the situation. In all actuality it is still a very irritating situation we are in.
Yeah it's holding up money and creativity.
Yeah all that, it’s holding us up getting music to the fans. It holds up the whole competitive aspect of being in this industry.
But I am sure when this issue is resolved the streets will be inundated with material from you.
Oh yeah we have tons of material to put out, we got records, we got new records.
So you still running with Hell Hath No Fury as the sophomore album title?
I don’t think there is no better title that fits.
How many times has the track listing for this album changed?
Oh man I would say maybe four, but as heartbreaking as it may sound that is the therapeutic part of it. You know you are still going back in and making hot records and making hot joints and we are still creating records where people are saying "you really can’t f**k with this." That’s what’s keeping us going.
But how is this taking its toll on you, I mean there have to have been times when you are like damn ‘I want to get my music out there?’
Yeah when I watch Rap City, when I watch MTV2, when I listen to the radio, it’s like “what the hell is going on?” I listen to it and I am like “is everyone just following the same blue print”. No one seems to want to disrupt radio and we sort of prided ourselves on making gangsta records and make the radio play them, we going to make What Happened to that Boy, we going to make Grindin. When records like that came out, that disrupted the whole format, that was what we prided ourselves on and that is when I miss it the most listening to the radio and all that.
You mention everyone sticking to the same blue print, when you are back in a position to put your music out there what are you going to hit us with? I mean your Re-Up Gang Mixtape, We Got it For Cheap, made the streets talk, is that a taste of what is to come?
Lyrically it is, I mean I don’t think that the Clipse do anything that is really groundbreaking. We rap that street shit all day long, that is our arena, the streets and that is what we like to do. That is what is interesting to us and I can tell you about that backwards and forwards. Its not that we do things so much differently to everyone else out there, I just think that we do it better. I think what’s happening is where a lot of guys do it there is just no creativity in it; metaphorically it’s the same parallels that we draw. I mean its one thing to be rapping and just saying something; but to be rapping and drawing parallels and having those metaphors, you know definitely getting their point across and adding color to their verses, that is what guys aren’t doing. On the Re-Up Gang Mixtape you hear so many things, so many different verses and so many different lines from all the Re-Up Gang and it is very colorful and I think that is what makes it such a good album.
So in your estimations do you think people just don’t strive hard enough to create their own identity?
Its not that they don’t work hard enough, they just study the wrong things and that and emulating the wrong things. They take the wrong part of what is hot. They get caught up in everything other than the artistry. Big was great, Pac was amazing, but so many people loved him for talking shit on an MTV interview versus him being as poetic as he was. People forget that and remember him for all the things he brought, but I don’t think they understand the lyrics and how much they meant. The parallels, the similes, all that hurt me and I think people were just in love with the persona. If you look at the game now, it's all surrounded with hype. The guys ain’t focusing on the pen, they like “ok lets get this track written real quick and then let me go and talk shit about this man in this press release, then talk shit about that man in this press release.”
OK so you mention hype surrounding artists, we recently just saw one of our living legends "declare war' and then deaden a couple of notorious beefs, how justified was that so called hype?
Let me say this Jay Z is a strategist. He looks and he analyzes, this might be way bigger, you know this whole East Coast Alliance. He is a very smart man and I know he knows that in his absence, his retirement, the one thing that is missing in the industry are people who can rap. So you have Jay-Z declaring war then bringing out Nas, the Lox, and Beanie Segal. Just look at those guys, Nas - icon, The Lox run the streets I don’t care, Hov is who he is and then you have Beanie and then he brings out Jeezy and TI, who are from the South but who are the most credible emcees from the south, in the sense that they have got a definite east coast respect at a time where the south is kind of running shit. I mean it was just he was aligning, you setting up all his players. Bringing out Nas goes way deeper than that.
Socially and politically the Re-Up Gang CD may have caused a few raised eyebrows with the amount of drug references, how do you defend that?
I live in Virginia and yes I do travel to all different places but I will always end up in a ghetto near you, New York, Atlanta, and Miami I am always in a ghetto near you. To me I speak to my people; I speak to the people who have been into what I have been into, the people who have been through that stage in their life. I don’t try to cater to everybody. I am not that socially conscious. I know what I know and there are certain things I know and certain things I don’t know. I could never give you a Mos Def record and he is one of the greats to me, but I can only do what I know. I think my folks understand that.
You kept to your blueprint, you are keeping to your personal blueprint, not the industries, so people can’t hate on you for that.
People really follow and understand that we really go there. My first single that ever dropped when we were on Elektra records back in 1999 and it was I Got Caught Dealing. The video of that came out and was inspired by the kidnapping and torture of one of my greatest friends, the dope dealer or whatever, but he was a friend of mine and the video to that track was inspired by that. Then we came back from being gone from ’99 to ’02 and we come back with Grinding, nothing has changed in us and what we are about.
Pharrell’s album is dropping in early 2006 I believe, are you on that album?
Yeah that’s what it’s looking like. I am on a track on that yeah, but I chose to rap on an R and B record, you know Pharrell is an experimental type and I think that everybody was sort of looking for the Clipse to be on a sort of rap as Pharrell is rapping as well. I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to do something different. I love his R and B and I knew he had a lot of different people and features and I didn’t want to rap.
You really rate him as a lyricist so I guess it is an album we can look forward to?
Yeah, yeah. I think his pen is incredible; his production is A+ superior, but his pen is just as good to me. I feel like I know where he comes from, I know what his writing process is and I see what he does. Nobody, and I am talking rap and I am talking songs, nobody can get in there and just “feel’ like he does. He is a ‘feel’ guy and it just comes out and when you see it you have more respect for it. Someone said that his rap wasn’t clear and it sounded awkward and we were like ‘Whatever,’ all his stuff is coming straight out of his mind, just like the album title says.
Now you guys worked with Sean Paul, how was that?
You know we did an amazing track for Hell Hath No Fury. We weren’t on the Trinity, but I did a record for the Trinity and it didn’t make the cut. But the track was incredible; I am going to find a way to get that track out. I was doing my thing with the reggae on that track. (laughter.)
How did that collabo come about?
Grindin was like the music base for everybody and everybody was rapping on it at the time, but we were like you know we gotta do something different. So we did a remix and there was a rap version with Baby, Lil Wayne and Noreaga and then we did one where we chose to go more far left with it, you know to invite more of an audience. So we decided to go reggae with it, we had Kardinal Official (and) Sean Paul, it was dope. It was just something to draw more of an audience.
With the multi-platinum selling Lord Willing considered one of 2002’s most critically acclaimed albums still fresh in our heads, it is only a matter of time before the Clipse are back in our headphones, homes and cars with the long overdue sophomore project, Hell Hath No Fury. The track listing for the album has changed four times to date, so one can only assume that when it finally finds it way into our CD changers we will be once again seduced by the reality and straight street style that only Malice and Pusha are capable of.
One thing the Clipse have never done, is compromise themselves and attempt to change up to follow suit when it comes to keeping ‘fresh’ on the scene. Their blueprint as Pusha explains in this interview is always going to remain the same. Ain’t nothing changed.
How is the label situation looking, did you get your situation sorted out with Jive and Arista?
The label situation is definitely still in limbo. As far as these litigations go, there are always motions that are thrown into the mix that prolong the situation. In all actuality it is still a very irritating situation we are in.
Yeah it's holding up money and creativity.
Yeah all that, it’s holding us up getting music to the fans. It holds up the whole competitive aspect of being in this industry.
But I am sure when this issue is resolved the streets will be inundated with material from you.
Oh yeah we have tons of material to put out, we got records, we got new records.
So you still running with Hell Hath No Fury as the sophomore album title?
I don’t think there is no better title that fits.
How many times has the track listing for this album changed?
Oh man I would say maybe four, but as heartbreaking as it may sound that is the therapeutic part of it. You know you are still going back in and making hot records and making hot joints and we are still creating records where people are saying "you really can’t f**k with this." That’s what’s keeping us going.
But how is this taking its toll on you, I mean there have to have been times when you are like damn ‘I want to get my music out there?’
Yeah when I watch Rap City, when I watch MTV2, when I listen to the radio, it’s like “what the hell is going on?” I listen to it and I am like “is everyone just following the same blue print”. No one seems to want to disrupt radio and we sort of prided ourselves on making gangsta records and make the radio play them, we going to make What Happened to that Boy, we going to make Grindin. When records like that came out, that disrupted the whole format, that was what we prided ourselves on and that is when I miss it the most listening to the radio and all that.
You mention everyone sticking to the same blue print, when you are back in a position to put your music out there what are you going to hit us with? I mean your Re-Up Gang Mixtape, We Got it For Cheap, made the streets talk, is that a taste of what is to come?
Lyrically it is, I mean I don’t think that the Clipse do anything that is really groundbreaking. We rap that street shit all day long, that is our arena, the streets and that is what we like to do. That is what is interesting to us and I can tell you about that backwards and forwards. Its not that we do things so much differently to everyone else out there, I just think that we do it better. I think what’s happening is where a lot of guys do it there is just no creativity in it; metaphorically it’s the same parallels that we draw. I mean its one thing to be rapping and just saying something; but to be rapping and drawing parallels and having those metaphors, you know definitely getting their point across and adding color to their verses, that is what guys aren’t doing. On the Re-Up Gang Mixtape you hear so many things, so many different verses and so many different lines from all the Re-Up Gang and it is very colorful and I think that is what makes it such a good album.
So in your estimations do you think people just don’t strive hard enough to create their own identity?
Its not that they don’t work hard enough, they just study the wrong things and that and emulating the wrong things. They take the wrong part of what is hot. They get caught up in everything other than the artistry. Big was great, Pac was amazing, but so many people loved him for talking shit on an MTV interview versus him being as poetic as he was. People forget that and remember him for all the things he brought, but I don’t think they understand the lyrics and how much they meant. The parallels, the similes, all that hurt me and I think people were just in love with the persona. If you look at the game now, it's all surrounded with hype. The guys ain’t focusing on the pen, they like “ok lets get this track written real quick and then let me go and talk shit about this man in this press release, then talk shit about that man in this press release.”
OK so you mention hype surrounding artists, we recently just saw one of our living legends "declare war' and then deaden a couple of notorious beefs, how justified was that so called hype?
Let me say this Jay Z is a strategist. He looks and he analyzes, this might be way bigger, you know this whole East Coast Alliance. He is a very smart man and I know he knows that in his absence, his retirement, the one thing that is missing in the industry are people who can rap. So you have Jay-Z declaring war then bringing out Nas, the Lox, and Beanie Segal. Just look at those guys, Nas - icon, The Lox run the streets I don’t care, Hov is who he is and then you have Beanie and then he brings out Jeezy and TI, who are from the South but who are the most credible emcees from the south, in the sense that they have got a definite east coast respect at a time where the south is kind of running shit. I mean it was just he was aligning, you setting up all his players. Bringing out Nas goes way deeper than that.
Socially and politically the Re-Up Gang CD may have caused a few raised eyebrows with the amount of drug references, how do you defend that?
I live in Virginia and yes I do travel to all different places but I will always end up in a ghetto near you, New York, Atlanta, and Miami I am always in a ghetto near you. To me I speak to my people; I speak to the people who have been into what I have been into, the people who have been through that stage in their life. I don’t try to cater to everybody. I am not that socially conscious. I know what I know and there are certain things I know and certain things I don’t know. I could never give you a Mos Def record and he is one of the greats to me, but I can only do what I know. I think my folks understand that.
You kept to your blueprint, you are keeping to your personal blueprint, not the industries, so people can’t hate on you for that.
People really follow and understand that we really go there. My first single that ever dropped when we were on Elektra records back in 1999 and it was I Got Caught Dealing. The video of that came out and was inspired by the kidnapping and torture of one of my greatest friends, the dope dealer or whatever, but he was a friend of mine and the video to that track was inspired by that. Then we came back from being gone from ’99 to ’02 and we come back with Grinding, nothing has changed in us and what we are about.
Pharrell’s album is dropping in early 2006 I believe, are you on that album?
Yeah that’s what it’s looking like. I am on a track on that yeah, but I chose to rap on an R and B record, you know Pharrell is an experimental type and I think that everybody was sort of looking for the Clipse to be on a sort of rap as Pharrell is rapping as well. I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to do something different. I love his R and B and I knew he had a lot of different people and features and I didn’t want to rap.
You really rate him as a lyricist so I guess it is an album we can look forward to?
Yeah, yeah. I think his pen is incredible; his production is A+ superior, but his pen is just as good to me. I feel like I know where he comes from, I know what his writing process is and I see what he does. Nobody, and I am talking rap and I am talking songs, nobody can get in there and just “feel’ like he does. He is a ‘feel’ guy and it just comes out and when you see it you have more respect for it. Someone said that his rap wasn’t clear and it sounded awkward and we were like ‘Whatever,’ all his stuff is coming straight out of his mind, just like the album title says.
Now you guys worked with Sean Paul, how was that?
You know we did an amazing track for Hell Hath No Fury. We weren’t on the Trinity, but I did a record for the Trinity and it didn’t make the cut. But the track was incredible; I am going to find a way to get that track out. I was doing my thing with the reggae on that track. (laughter.)
How did that collabo come about?
Grindin was like the music base for everybody and everybody was rapping on it at the time, but we were like you know we gotta do something different. So we did a remix and there was a rap version with Baby, Lil Wayne and Noreaga and then we did one where we chose to go more far left with it, you know to invite more of an audience. So we decided to go reggae with it, we had Kardinal Official (and) Sean Paul, it was dope. It was just something to draw more of an audience.
one moment...
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