Pusha T and Malice reunite as Clipse after sixteen years on the luxurious, Pharrell produced Let God Sort Em Out proving they are the kings of coke rap.
Release date: July 11, 2025 | Independent/Roc Nation | Website
Sixteen years ago, I graduated college. I had a shiny degree in English and vague ambitions of getting a master’s degree or a master’s in fine arts for writing and poetics, following an old friend to Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado to the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. I still kind of scoff at the pretentiousness of all of that, and my friend reported back that it was just as ridiculous as it seemed. So, instead I found myself in the service and hospitality industry and living in a communal, anarchist apartment. It was there that I traded my ambitions of being a professional poet for partying and being mad at the government. I also was introduced to Clipse at that time. Hell Hath No Fury became a fairly regular soundtrack as we drank Miller High Life bottles and dreamed of a more equitable and liberated future.
That all seems like a lifetime ago, but it has been just as long since Clipse has released a full-length album. Over the years, I followed Pusha T‘s career, which remained quality, but nothing ever hit like Clipse. Malice made some Christian rap to atone for his days of dealing coke and rapping about it, but more or less disappeared for years. So, since the rumors and eventual announcement of a new Clipse album started in 2023, I was fucking stoked, Then the teases, delays, and rollout happened. Snippets of music at Louis Vuitton fashion shows sounded promising, but then we waited as a label dispute over Kendrick Lamar‘s verse was resolved by Clipse buying themselves out of the deal with seven figures and a percentage of album sales, absolutely, wildly artistically dedicated behavior. “Ace Trumpets” dropped. Interviews popped up everywhere. Discussions of beef with Ye, Drake, Travis Scott, and Jim Jones filled the web, Then, “So Be It” dropped, and now somewhere between where I can be called a ‘senior,’ Let God Sort Em Out has landed.
Let God Sort Em Out is a AAA hip hop release. The budget, the guests, the rollout, the production, and the raps all feel luxurious, like what I imagine high luxury must feel like: precise, skillful, exquisite, and unable to help itself from being a little corny. I’ve always been more of an indie rap fan, but when the truest talents rise to the top, I am not going to ignore them. Over a decade apart, Pusha T and Malice sound as tight and menacing as ever, still delivering the best double entendres about cocaine in the game, still taking no bullshit, and still playing by their own loyalties and ethics. ‘She want Mike Tyson blow to the face/I’m talkin’ ’96 Hov with the base,’ raps Malice on “M.T.B.T.T.F.” ‘Best believe, I can whip a Christmas Eve with some work on a hot stove,’ Pusha raps on “So Far Ahead”.
The boys are back with some changes, though. Pusha seems to be more focused on wealth and luxury and beef than blow, taking shots at Jim Jones, Travis Scott, and Ye throughout the album. While Malice has more coke bars, and is flaunting wealth, as well, he is also rapping from a more religious perspective, ‘John 10:10 is my usual‘ (“Chains & Whips). The most immediate change, however, comes from album opener, “The Birds Don’t Sing” which shows a rare, tender side of Clipse as an ode to their parents who passed away a mere four months apart. It is a touching tribute where Pusha T talks to his mother and Malice talks to his father as if it was the last conversation they could have, both emcees taking lessons from the pain of loss while John Legend lends his voice for the eloquent chorus.
The guest spots on Let God Sort Em Out are a big part of the AAA status, not that Clipse couldn’t carry it on their own, but they have rounded up some heavy-hitting talent to join the reunion. Kendrick Lamar delivers an electrifying verse on “Chains & Whips” that is just as layered and impressive as, well, everything he does. Tyler, The Creator shines on “P.O.V.” sounding like he prepared his ass off for this feature, his flow nodding to Clipse‘s classic cadance and delivering one of the hardest bars on the album with, ‘I need God to play the lead in my biopic.’ The-Dream delivers a verse to close “All Things Considered”. Re-Up Gang veteran Ab-Liva and the legendary Nas lend killer verses on “Inglorious Bastards” and “Let God Sort ‘Em Out/Chandeliers” respectively. One of my hip-hop collab wish list items gets checked off as Stove God Cooks lends a chorus to “F.I.C.O.” which at first felt subdued to me, but the way it has become an ear worm this week changed my opinion.
Pharrell is, of course, all over this thing. If there were a third member to Clipse, it would be Pharrell. The producer/rapper/fashion exec knew Malice back in the day, and when he heard Pusha T rap convinced the brothers to form a duo and whether solo or with Chad Hugo in The Neptunes produced a large portion of Clipse‘s catalog from day one. As such, he is the sole producer on Let God Sort Em Out and lends his voice to multiple tracks on the album. His production is still incredibly strong, giving a synth-lead energy to many of these tracks with heavy bass, airy and sweet parts where needed, and a few home runs (“Ace Trumpets”, “All Things Considered”, and “So Be It” are stellar). Though, Skateboard P’s approach feels less visionary these days compared to the mind-blowing beats of Hell Hath No Fury or the iconic swagger of Lord Willin’. Closing track, “By The Grace Of God” has a verse beat that sounds at home on GoldenEye 007 on Nintendo 64 while his pitch-corrected chorus sounds like a goofy Michael McDonald impression, especially with the melody. He also throws a tag throughout the album (‘This is culturally inappropriate‘) that feels forced and out of touch. Nothing on Let God Sort Em Out is outside of the broader spectrum of hip hop culture, and hip hop is still the most popular genre of music in the world. So, I don’t know who these millionaires think they are fooling with that tag line, but it is catchy and grabs attention.
Despite all of these guests and collaborators, Pusha T and Malice still own this album. Malice, in particular, not only sounds like he hasn’t missed a beat since ‘Til The Casket Drops, but seems even sharper in his bars, every word indispensable, with an incredible economy of language and layered meanings in every verse. Pusha has been a world-class emcee for over two decades, and pulls out all of the stops for this banner project, channeling Guru and Notorious B.I.G., at times, while throwing nods to his own career. On “F.I.C.O.” the duo mirror each other’s flow, each verse focusing on a two-syllable rhyme juxtaposed to a one-syllable rhyme with a few others sprinkled in between. The effect is hypnotic and makes “F.I.C.O.” one of the best displays of creative and precise bars I have heard this year. On “M.T.B.T.T.F” each verse is started by an entirely acapella series of bars that land on Pharrell‘s classic sounding bass-funk with precision. Plus the lines on this song are some of the hardest on the album. Regardless of who is around Clipse, Push and Malice are going to shine.
While I may prefer indie and underground hip hop to most releases of this caliber, the return of Clipse is an exercise in real hip hop, delivered with white gloves to display top-level talent. These songs are catchy and addictive, full of personality, bravado, menace, and humor. The surprise twists of heart and introspection are just icing on the cake, giving us the most well-rounded and mature version of Clipse we have heard to date. Maturity comes with the territory of being two rappers around 50 years old, showing up like, almost every old-man rap album that has come out in recent memory, It makes me wonder what these other elder statesmen of hip hop are up to, because if they were as in tune with hip hop and keeping their wits sharp as Clipse are, we could see a death to the trope that hip hop is a young man’s game. Let God Sort Em Out is easily the most fun hip hop album of the year, so far, and regardless of my minor gripes, it will be in heavy rotation this summer.
