{"id":210503,"date":"2025-09-08T15:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210503\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T15:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:25:12","slug":"clipse-tour-brings-southern-rap-to-dallas-bomb-factory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210503\/","title":{"rendered":"Clipse Tour Brings Southern Rap to Dallas’ Bomb Factory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clipse brought their \u2018Let God Sort Em Out\u2019 Tour to The Bomb Factory in Deep Ellum for the Dallas leg, accompanied by EARTHGANG, on a warm but beautiful Thursday night on September 4. With South Dallas\u2019 icon Erykah Badu seated and in attendance<\/a>, Terrance\u2019 Pusha T\u2019 Thornton, Gene\u2019 Malice\u2019 Thornton and their tour DJ, Yoo Q!, put on an exceptional show for the capacity crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"PushaT of CLIPSE embracing the Dallas crowd at the Bomb Factory Sep. 4, 20205. Photo Credit: Jerry Hawkins<\/p>\n

While we \u2018Day One\u2019 CLIPSE fans baggered Pusha T for more than a decade about another CLIPSE album, we have to admit that we were also skeptical that Malice (once upon a time \u2018No Malice\u2019) would even return to the group after his righteous 16-year hiatus. After hearing Malice pop-out on \u201cI Pray for You\u201d from Pusha\u2019s last solo album, It\u2019s Almost Dry. Seeing him make special appearances at Pharrell\u2019s 2022 Something In The Water festival<\/a>, the 2022 BET Hip-Hop Awards<\/a>, and Chicago\u2019s 2023 Hyde Park Summer Fest<\/a>, we had a feeling a CLIPSE reunion was on the horizon. However, once we heard NEW CLIPSE music (an early version of \u201cChains and Whips<\/a>\u201c) while the Thornton brothers walked the runway in Pharrell\u2019s 2023 Louis Vuitton\u2019s Spring-Summer 2024 show<\/a>, it was a wrap. CLIPSE are back!<\/p>\n

Fast forward back to September 4, 2025, and from the start of their time in Dallas, the CLIPSE proved that their reunion was worth the wait. Appearing one at a time with the first song, \u201cChains & Whips,\u201d Pusha T and Malice weaved through the majority of their new album, while also swerving through a few songs from previous albums Lord Willin\u2019, Til the Casket Drops and Hell Hath No Fury. They even blessed us with their verses from Birdman\u2019s \u201cWhat Happened to That Boy?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, I had several epiphanies while watching them perform songs like \u201cPopular Demand (Popeyes),\u201d \u201cMomma I\u2019m So Sorry,\u201d \u201cSo Far Ahead,\u201d and \u201cGrindin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

CLIPSE = Southern Rap<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although many do not mention or acknowledge it, CLIPSE is a Southern Hip-Hop artist. Stating that the CLIPSE belong in the lineage of Southern rap is historically imperative because their home state, Virginia, created the first legal framework for race (even before the birth of the United States), and may be where the idea of lynching began<\/a>. Malice referenced this on \u201cVirginia\u201d<\/a>, from their 2002 album, Lord Willin\u2019<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201c\u2026Ironic\/ the same place I\u2019m makin\u2019 figures at\/<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

That there\u2019s the same land they used to hang n*ggas at\/<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

In Virginia!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

CLIPSE are from the South. As a hip-hop duo known as lyricists and craftsmen, they were heavily influenced by the East Coast pedigree of EPMD, Mobb Deep, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, AND they also belong in conversation with UGK, Eightball & MJG, and Outkast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The CLIPSE concert at The Bomb Factory. Photo Credit: Jerry L. Hawkins<\/p>\n

CLIPSE = Aging In Hip-Hop Like Fine Wine<\/strong><\/p>\n

While being booed, Andr\u00e9 3000 of Outkast once decreed (while receiving \u201cBest New Rap Group\u201d award at the 1995 Source Awards) that \u201cThe South got something to say!\u201d\u00a0 Dre and his partner Big Boi would go on to have the highest-selling Hip-Hop album of all time, the RIAA-certified Diamond and 2004 Grammy \u201cAlbum of the Year\u201d award-winning \u201cSpeakerboxxx\/The Love Below.\u201d In a 2023 interview with GQ Magazine<\/a>, however, Andr\u00e9 3000 lamented, \u201cIt actually feels\u2026sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don\u2019t have anything to talk about in that way. I\u2019m 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way, it does. And things that happen in my life, like, what are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, the Thornton brothers at 48 (Pusha T) and 52 (Malice) have much to discuss. They are modeling how Gen X artists can cater to their core audience with high-quality music, master-level penmanship, and a phenomenal album rollout for their fourth (really fifth, IYKYK) studio album, Let God Sort Em Out. A 50+ year-old MC (Malice) is the favorite for 2025 Lyricist of the Year, and his 48-year-old younger brother is right there with him. And this accompanying tour is a continuance of their attention to detail, respect for their craft, and curatorial sophistication.<\/p>\n

CLIPSE =\u00a0 Black Archivists\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

During their one-hour-long show, as a CLIPSE audience member, you are immediately confronted by two large digital displays showing Black archival images and cultural iconography accompanying their music and performance. From video clips of the \u201980s Crack Era to actual childhood and adolescent pictures of the brothers and family members, their decision to share intimate family photos, Black Americana, and pop culture memories of their lives creates a contextually different concert environment than experiencing lesser rappers just walking around the stage. I immediately thought about the work of Sierra King\u2019s BUILD YOUR ARCHIVE<\/a>, where Sierra\u2019s praxis is \u201cintentional choices and ritual-led record-keeping,\u201d and utilizing \u201cphotography, video, written and oral history to document the framework and make it accessible to future audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"No Malice of The CLIPSE embracing the Dallas crowd at the Bomb Factory Sep. 4, 20205. Photo Credit: Jerry Hawkins<\/p>\n

During \u201cGrindin,\u201d the duo performed in front of video clips of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. members hopping, Freaknic dancers, young people beating on lunchroom tables and Black girls playing pattycake, while \u201cAce Trumpets\u201d was backed by a menage of clips of Dizzy Gillespie playing his signature 45-degree upturned-bell trumpet, Black ballerinas, Bambi and Black exotic dancers spinning on the pole!\u00a0<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s visual climax was the visceral, wrenching and beautiful \u201cThe Birds Don\u2019t Sing,\u201d a searing tribute featuring John Legend and Stevie Wonder (!) to Pusha and Malice\u2019s late parents, Gene Thornton Sr. and Mildred Thornton. The two brothers rapped their heartbreaking verses while a generous number of their family photos featured their late parents. The song ended with large-scale portraits of both parents on their own screens. It was an extremely emotional experience that you don\u2019t usually get in the middle of rap concerts.<\/p>\n

Pusha T and Malice have three more shows left in the United States (September 8 in Chicago, September 10 in Detroit, and September 11 in Baltimore) before they begin a European leg of their tour in November. My advice is to catch the CLIPSE\u2026 if you can.<\/p>\n

Notes: Dallas Weekly Publisher and CEO Jess Washington wrote about Cimajie Best\u2019s sold-out \u201cThe South Got Something to Say\u201d<\/a> celebration of Southern hip-hop at the South Dallas Cultural Center featuring a pop-up Hip-Hop exhibition by me and the Hawkins Archives & Works<\/a>. Check it out here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also, check out this Southern Cultures quarterly focused on Southern Hip-Hop<\/a>, published by UNC Press for the Center for the Study of the American South, featuring a really good entry from a local voice, Chris Young<\/a>!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chris\u2019 partner, attorney, author and freedom fighter Brittany K. Barnett<\/a> (my friend and a personal hero of mine) and Pusha T worked together for years to free Tony Lewis<\/a> from a life sentence in federal prison\u2026and did. So the CLIPSE are conscious freedom fighters and activists, too! For proof, listen to Pusha T\u2019s ode to Freddie Gray, police brutality and injustice featuring Jill Scott, \u201cSunshine<\/a>,\u201d from his KING PUSH album.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

\t