{"id":99511,"date":"2025-10-02T17:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T17:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99511\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T17:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T17:34:08","slug":"clipse-pharrell-on-let-god-sort-em-out-grammys-the-state-of-rap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99511\/","title":{"rendered":"Clipse & Pharrell On ‘Let God Sort Em Out’, Grammys & The State of Rap"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn 2009, hip-hop was at an inflection point. Veterans like Eminem and Jay-Z scored Billboard Hot\u00a0100<\/a> No.\u00a01s, Kanye West and Lil Wayne enjoyed their imperial phases, a new generation of talent began to rise through blogs \u2014 and Clipse, the Virginia-bred rap duo of brothers Pusha\u00a0T and Malice, released its third album, Til the Casket Drops.<\/p>\n

\n\tSixteen years passed \u2014 an \u00adeternity by rap\u2019s standards \u2014 as Pusha\u00a0T became a successful solo artist and label executive while Malice took a hiatus from rapping to pursue his faith. But in July, Clipse reunited and finally dropped another album: Let God Sort Em Out.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlready a blockbuster hip-hop release, the project wouldn\u2019t have been a true reunion without fellow Virginian Pharrell Williams in the mix as producer. As one-half of The Neptunes, he lent his cosmic sonic canvas to Pusha\u00a0T and Malice\u2019s coke-laced raps, poignant storytelling and opulent flexes on their three 2000s-era albums \u2014 and in the years following Til the Casket Drops, he became a household name thanks to his work in music, film, TV and fashion. This time around, Pharrell invited Clipse to Louis Vuitton headquarters in Paris, where he serves as men\u2019s creative director, to meticulously craft their cinematic reintroduction over sessions that spanned two years. With a No.\u00a04 bow on the Billboard\u00a0200<\/a> \u2014 Clipse\u2019s highest mark since its 2002 debut, Lord Willin\u2019 \u2014 the project arrived to critical acclaim and album of the year chatter. And, in the process, the trio of \u201970s babies punctured the myth that rap is a young man\u2019s sport.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always looked at rap and other genres, rock specifically, and I\u2019ve never liked how rap always had the age ceiling where everyone else didn\u2019t,\u201d Pusha\u00a0T, 48, tells Billboard during a call with Malice and Pharrell as Clipse\u2019s tour bus heads to Detroit. \u201cI\u2019ve personally always wanted to make it my business to crack that ceiling, and I think the Clipse album 1,000% [did it].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMartin Scorsese made The Irishman not too long ago,\u201d adds Pharrell, 52, referencing the 2019 film by the now-82-year-old filmmaking legend. \u201cYou don\u2019t stop being great. You might decide not to continue to share your gift with the world. But great is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter paying seven figures in June to exit its deal with Def Jam (the act refused the label\u2019s request to censor Kendrick Lamar\u2019s featured verse on Let God Sort Em Out), Clipse seamlessly transitioned to Roc Nation for distribution and went on to deliver one of the more memorable rollouts in recent rap history, with KAWS-designed cover art, a Carhartt merchandise collaboration and even a runway appearance at a Louis Vuitton fashion show with Jay-Z and Beyonc\u00e9 in the front row.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmid it all, this summer, Clipse embarked on its first tour in over 15 years \u2014 and then flew to Rome to become the first hip-hop artists to perform at the Vatican, playing to a crowd of a quarter-million as part of Grace for the World, a concert co-directed by Pharrell. Next April, the act will make its Coachella debut. \u201cThis is something that you couldn\u2019t plan for by no stretch of the imagination,\u201d says Malice, 53.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut despite all these wins, \u00adPusha\u00a0T, Malice and Pharrell have their sights set on another accolade: a Grammy Award in 2026. While the decorated Pharrell has earned 13 of them, Clipse never has; the duo\u2019s lone nomination is for featuring on Justin Timberlake\u2019s \u201cLike I Love You\u201d in 2003, and Pusha\u00a0T has five solo noms. Pharrell hopes Clipse can perform the tearful Let God Sort Em Out opener \u201cThe Birds Don\u2019t Sing\u201d at the awards and that they can honor their parents with a Grammy win. \u201cYou got people who get them and pee on them, and we ain\u2019t doing none of that,\u201d Pharrell jokes. \u201cWe want them for our parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Feature,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tPusha T (left) and Malice of Clipse onstage at the Grace for the World concert in Vatican City on Sept. 13.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlessandra Benedetti\/Corbis\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s it like hearing all the album of the year talk surrounding Let God Sort Em Out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMalice:<\/strong> I like it because it\u2019s unanimous; it\u2019s the consensus. Everywhere we go, people keep saying it. Just that it hits everybody in that way. With that being the case, that just can\u2019t be denied. It didn\u2019t come from us saying it; it comes from the listener.<\/p>\n

\n\tPusha\u00a0T:<\/strong> I fully agree with that. It speaks to the testament of what we put into the music. This is still art class for us, man. I was never in band or anything, but I feel like we attacked this music in such a way that it comes with that level of precision. There\u2019s a level of expertise that is shown in the creation and displayed in the creation of this music. I\u2019m glad that it comes across and hits people in that way. People are using \u201csophisticated\u201d and \u201chigh-taste level\u201d and all these adjectives to explain the music.<\/p>\n

\n\tPharrell Williams:<\/strong> The precision and the discipline that was exercised, I thought we would get our flowers for. But I think we got more than that. I think people are really reacting. This is what\u2019s been so surprising to me: People are reacting to more than just the sounds, the ideas, like lyrically and song concept-wise. They responded to what the Clipse and myself put into our respective jobs. Beats and the musicality that I contributed to it and their ideas, concepts and lyrics; it\u2019s more than that. What I see people responding to is when you wipe away all of our work, at the core of what we did that I think is different than what you get elsewhere is that we were painting not with sounds and lyrics \u2014 we were painting with feelings.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s where we all met up. The intersection of what I think this music is is feelings. I was playing with feelings. They were writing with feelings. And I\u2019m not saying other people don\u2019t feel \u2014 I\u2019m just saying, like, you could really feel this. When these guys get into \u201cBirds Don\u2019t Sing,\u201d it\u2019s the symbolism as much as it is the lyrical acrobatics that happened there. Malice used that word earlier, \u201cunanimous\u201d; that\u2019s an art form to be able to achieve that, with many people walking away feeling the same things. For me, the testament is seeing people walk away feeling s\u2013t.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you talk about creating with a feeling, is that different from the early years working with Clipse?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPharrell:<\/strong> When we were kids, we just did the s\u2013t because it was fun. And what we ended up doing was based on taste. Now we know we\u2019re students. We know that we\u2019re blessed. This was ordained. We\u2019ve been led to this place. That\u2019s the distinct difference between being young and arrogant, making \u201cMomma I\u2019m So Sorry\u201d [from 2006\u2019s Hell Hath No Fury] and being students and real artists who paint with emotions to make a \u201cBirds Don\u2019t Sing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThey say rap\u2019s a young man\u2019s game, but you guys have never aged out of it, and this project felt fresh. Touch on that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPusha\u00a0T:<\/strong> You started the question with the phrasing of a young man\u2019s sport \u2014 we kind of cracked the ceiling on that. Looking at just competing in music, I\u2019ve never felt like it was a young man\u2019s sport. I always felt like it was a competitor\u2019s sport. As long as you\u2019re competing and you\u2019re living through the times, you should be in it. You have to be in it. You can\u2019t passively be in it. Nah, man, this is about who can compete and who can\u2019t. Being able to compete through different eras and trends, to be able to A and B your music versus whatever\u2019s popular. Let God Sort Em Out speaks volumes when it comes to that.<\/p>\n

\n\tMalice:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think we should slight ourselves because it is a young man\u2019s sport until proven otherwise. I think we\u2019ve yet to see that happen at this level. I think when making [Let God Sort Em Out], and with all the Clipse albums, you know what you\u2019re about to release. You can also tell if you\u2019re being mediocre. It\u2019s good that people have seen it be achieved, and I still think people are gonna have a tough time doing it.<\/p>\n

\n\tP, did you feel at all like, \u201cHey, I can make a statement here. Don\u2019t sleep on me. I can still make a classic album\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPharrell:<\/strong> Oh, nah, I never thought that way. The thing most people forget, we are human beings. \u201cHuman\u201d meaning flesh and \u201cbeing\u201d meaning spirit. I\u2019m saying being is a verb. I am always being. If I stopped being, I would have been. I don\u2019t got to be the greatest of all time. I don\u2019t got to be none of that s\u2013t.<\/p>\n

\n\tMalice:<\/strong> But you are, though!<\/p>\n

\n\tPharrell:<\/strong> We don\u2019t have those \u201cstill\u201d conversations, we just are what we are. We are who we are, but we are who we are because we know what we are. We always going to be different. We\u2019re from Virginia. We ain\u2019t New York, we ain\u2019t Atlanta. I love Miami, [but] we ain\u2019t Florida, we ain\u2019t the West Coast. We the East Coast of Virginia. When you seeing us doing what we doing, we showing you what the East Coast feel like. Not what it sound like. I\u2019ll leave that to the really great producers. I play with feelings and emotions. If you listen to a Clipse record and you don\u2019t feel like going to buy a coupe, we failed you.<\/p>\n

\n\tI can\u2019t go buy an Audi now.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPharrell:<\/strong> It make you want to get your money up, don\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

\n\tMalice:<\/strong> Listen, don\u2019t feel bad. When Jay-Z said, \u201cWe don\u2019t drive X5s, we give \u2019em to baby mommas,\u201d I had just got the X5 and I had to hang my head after that. I know the feeling.<\/p>\n

\n\tPharrell:<\/strong> We got all kinds of consumers with Clipse. We don\u2019t begrudge nobody that can\u2019t ride how we ride. My whole thing is, \u201cRun at your own speed. If Audi is your speed, that\u2019s your pace, but run it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLet God Sort Em Out felt like a cultural reset \u2014 even the rollout was \u00adincredible.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPharrell:<\/strong> You know why? Because you have to sit and be honest. You have to be prepared for honesty. Honesty ain\u2019t just what you hear and see. It\u2019s not just an aesthetic or a sound thing. It\u2019s also a kinesthetic and tactile emotion thing.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m gonna say something that\u2019s very real right now: We grew up in an area where the coolest guy, the guy that the rappers emulated, was the pharmacist, and now we\u2019re in the era where the coolest guy is the patient. The patient has a point of view. They want emotions, but that\u2019s not what they\u2019re gonna give you. They supplement when they listen to that music. And not everybody, but it\u2019s just a very different thing. We play on the other side of the emotion. We make music that we want you to feel. Not music you listen to and you have to go supplement to feel. The music is the drug.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat do you think flipped it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPharrell:<\/strong> That\u2019s the way it\u2019s always been. It was like that in the \u201960s when people were experimenting. It was more psychedelic, but then in the \u201970s, it got real heavy, and they started getting into the heavier things. Then in the \u201980s, it just goes through all these different phases. And I just think the phase that we in right now, there\u2019s a lot of emo music and I love a lot of it, but it\u2019s different. A lot of times, when you listen to tracks, they\u2019re not compositions, necessarily. They\u2019re vibes. And a lot of times they are devoid of stimulation for feelings.<\/p>\n

\n\tPusha\u00a0T:<\/strong> We chose to execute the rollout how we did because we miss the nostalgia of running to a magazine<\/a> and seeing who said what. Looking at an album and seeing a rating or disagreeing with everybody else \u2014 what did said magazine say? We miss that. That\u2019s just part of that passionate purist I feel like we talk to in crafting Let God Sort Em Out. The Clipse have always been open books and open to criticism and letting people hear the music. We encourage the feedback.<\/p>\n

\n\tMalice:<\/strong> I think the internet allowed anybody and everything to be a rapper, if that\u2019s what you label yourself. I think it allotted for laziness. I think it speaks to the condition of the world. If people want to get high, you could turn on a beat and there\u2019s so many people that can do that. I think that\u2019s the state of the world revealing itself, and it took on a laziness. We come from that time where you had to fight to be heard and among the best. We still carry that. That\u2019s very important.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Feature,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tHarvey Mason Jr. (left) and Pharrell at the 2023 Grammys on the Hill awards dinner in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPaul Morigi\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tHow do you guys feel rap\u2019s relationship with the Grammys has evolved over the years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPharrell:<\/strong> As long as they do \u201cBirds Don\u2019t Sing\u201d on that stage and whatever else they want to do, that\u2019s all I care about.<\/p>\n

\n\tPusha\u00a0T:<\/strong> I\u2019ve watched the Grammys evolve tremendously. I think that there\u2019s been a lot of thought and efforts to at least get it right in the hip-hop space. I remember when hip-hop wasn\u2019t televised on the Grammys. It\u2019s evolved in a lot of different ways. To be [potentially] nominated and in the mix of that company \u2014 you want the hardware, my man, trust me. We all want the hardware. It\u2019s nothing to even play with. I think it\u2019s the credibility of the Grammys and the thought put into the categories and the committees. I think the Grammys been getting it right.<\/p>\n

\n\tPharrell:<\/strong> Let\u2019s get it all the way right.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat would a Grammy win mean to you guys?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPusha\u00a0T:<\/strong> A well-deserved full-circle moment. That\u2019s a Grammy win for just brotherhood.<\/p>\n

\n\tMalice:<\/strong> The Grammys is definitely the high-water mark for musical achievement. And this is what you do it for. You don\u2019t play the game just to get a participation trophy. So like, it would definitely mean a lot, for sure.<\/p>\n

\n\tPharrell:<\/strong> Our parents remember us making music. Our parents remember being confused at what we were doing in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Not New York City or L.A., where you have these huge generational artists and genres. Our parents were confused; this is for them. You have moments when it\u2019s your time. And all I\u2019m saying is, I\u2019ve been knowing these guys since high school, and I\u2019m really sorry \u2014 like, with love \u2014 I think the category would agree that this is our brothers\u2019 time. I think their parents in heaven agree this is their time. I think my parents agree this is their time. Like I said, we ain\u2019t gonna drink out of it, right? We just gon\u2019 bring it home for our parents.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s next musically for Clipse? Could we run it back?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPusha\u00a0T:<\/strong> Plenty to come, man.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appears in the Oct. 4, 2025, issue of Billboard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2009, hip-hop was at an inflection point. Veterans like Eminem and Jay-Z scored Billboard Hot\u00a0100 No.\u00a01s, Kanye…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[18,117,5266,63336,19,17,361,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-99511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-genre-hiphop","11":"tag-grammy-preview","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-magazine","15":"tag-music"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}