Clipse pushes blow, new album
Hell Hath No Fury is one of the best hip-hop albums this year.
Published Nov. 28, 2006
In terms of rap industry fuckery, Virginia's Clipse could write the book. To illustrate, a quick timeline:
1997: Brothers Gene (Malice) and Terrance (Pusha-T) Thornton, with help of a then inconspicuous Pharrell Williams, sign to Arista Records and record Exclusive Audio Footage — a "debut" that will never be released.
2001: The trap-hop landmark album Lord Willin' snakes its way to gold status. You may remember such face-melters as "Grindin" and "When The Last Time." Pusha-T utters "I move 'caine like a cripple." Hearts stop.
2003: Songs are recorded for the original Hell Hath No Fury. Arista is dissolved into Jive Records.
2005: After two years of excruciating silence, Clipse releases the We Got It 4 Cheap mix tape series. Pusha and Malice pummel beats like Juelz Santana's "Mic Check" into submission. Pusha lets us know that he has "more white in the street than the KKK." My iPod explodes.
2006: Clipse reaches a deal with Jive to finally release Hell Hath No Fury. The original Hell Hath No Fury is completely scrapped and re-done. Jive sets the current Hell Hath No Fury to be released on Halloween. After being pushed back three times, Pusha says that he would like to lynch the "motherfuckers" at Jive. Jive settles on Nov. 28, 2006.
Rapping about dope-slinging is currently hip-hop's soup du jour, but no one in the game — with the exception of Lil' Wayne — comes close to the vivacity of the Brothers Thornton regarding the making, selling, etc. of cocaine and the spoils it's brought them. Both Pusha and Malice nonchalantly drop puns, similes, metaphors and pop culture references like they're feeding birds, leaving your head spinning and their contemporaries eating their grey-and-beige dust.
On the album's opener "We Got It For Cheap," Pusha, with typical sneering confidence, snaps, "I force feed you the metric scale/ rap is like child's play, my show and tell."
On "Chinese New Year," he opens with "Mask on face, glock in hand/ I was in and out of homes like the Orkin Man."
But with all the glorifying, Clipse doesn't come off as untouchable Tony Montana types, as Malice illustrates on "We Got It For Cheap:" "And to little brother Terrance who I love dearly so/ If I ever had millions never would you push blow."
The Neptunes, the most milked-dry producers in rap, handle the beats here, but when forced to produce a straight-up street record, they churn out 12 menacing stompers. The highlights are the most futuristic beats on the record — the slithering synth barrage of "Trill" and the thumping bongos of "Wamp Wamp (What It Do)."
With all that said, Hell Hath No Fury has its debilitating drawbacks. Somewhere between We Got It 4 Cheap and now, Clipse started rapping way too much about money, women, rims, etc. The group's draw has always been its masterful illustrations of the dope game and its tangible effects on members' lives. Much of that gets blunted here by the constant, pedestrian name-dropping of rap's same old brands.
Ditto for some of the hooks here, most delivered by the charisma-deprived Pharrell, lulling songs like "Hello New World" where they should flourish, or at the very least provide a competent bridge between verses.
Your feelings on Hell Hath No Fury will hinge on your expectations of it. It's not the classic it's long been built-up as, but all things considered, it's still one of the meanest hip-hop albums of the year.
Artist: Clipse
Album: Hell Hath No Fury
Genre: Hip-hop
Record Label: Re-Up/Jive Records
Release Date: Today
Most Listenworthy Track: 'Mr. Me Too'
Reviewer's Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Ms