This weekend in particular has been quite a treat for longstanding hip-hop fans, especially those with a soft spot for early-to-mid-2000s rap, thanks to sibling emcees Pusha T and Malice reuniting as the dynamic rap duo that go by Clipse.
Let God Sort Em Out, their new album released this past Friday (July 11) after a 16-year break to pursue solo efforts and personal life, is a testament to the old saying that a bond between brothers is unbreakable. Lucky for us, this bond comes with the added bonus of genius-level lyricism backed by the production of Pharrell Williams.
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Of course, the effortless musical connection that makes it so easy for Skateboard P to bless the bros with heat on this album is a bond in itself that’s been growing for the better part of three decades and counting. From the start, Pusha T and Malice have grown up with the super producer both in life by way of Virginia (see: Pharrell’s Piece By Piece LEGO biopic) and in the studio on virtually every album they released as a group. Despite well-documented label disputes that delayed singles and even albums, time proved that Clipse never needed to do more than make music on their own terms for a fanbase that clearly was willing to wait 16 years for a proper follow-up.
All things considered though, these guys managed to amass a strong catalogue even with just three albums released prior to Let God Sort Em Out. As a small nod to their decades-spanning hustle, we put together a list of some of their more deeper cuts that will really show you just how busy they got in the studio at their peak.
While we all know and love classic tracks like “Grindin,” “Hot Damn,” the speaker-thumping “Mr. Me Too” and synth-savvy “I’m Good” — don’t let Pusha fool you and say Til the Casket Drops didn’t give us any heat! — these b-sides will show a different side of the duo that you hear when the song wasn’t necessarily made for Billboard.