YRB Magazine

Virginia duo Clipse have traveled down a rocky road to land on their feet at Columbia Records. After Pusha T and Malice blessed the masses with their major label debut Lord Willin’ in 2002, the pair was thrown on ice when their label Arista Records folded and they were absorbed by sister label Jive Records where they were subsequently put on the backburner, their output corked. After relentlessly pushing to get their sophomore album out, the pair sued their label after they refused to let the two out of their contract, prompting them to release the highly lauded mixtape series We Got It 4 Cheap, a move that built them enough momentum to convince Jive to – well, stop jiving them.

Clipse dropped their indelible sophomore album Hell Hath No Fury on Jive in 2006, but after the album failed to commercially deliver, Jive finally relinquished them from their contract and they signed with Columbia. With label woes a thing of the past, Clipse got busy recording their latest album Til the Casket Drops, an album marked by clobbering beats courtesy of DJ Khalil, The Neptunes and Sean C & LV. But where the Thornton brothers truly shine is with their script-flipping rhymes, with the two digging a little deeper than coke rap as they delve into real subject matter (life, love, death and beyond).

Ahead of the album’s release, YRB caught up with Pusha T to discuss how Hell Hath No Fury is his favorite album of all time, how he and Malice got in the mindset to record Til the Casket Drops, why joints with Drake and Young Jeezy didn’t make this album and why there isn’t an archive of Clipse records waiting to be unleashed on Clipse-hungry fans.

YRB: Listening to Til the Casket Drops, it doesn’t strike me as dark or industrial sounding as Hell Hath No Fury. It’s kind of more celebratory, like you guys are somewhat more jovial. Was there a mood shift going into recording this album?

Pusha: Yeah, I mean, let me start off by saying we only make music off of mood. I only know how to rap and write what I know – what I feel, what I'm doing – I only know how to write from my perspective, which probably makes me worse than other rappers because they get to imagine and they can come with more of a variety of things. I can't. So I only know how to do that, and I only know how to write off of my music. If I was in a dark space, I couldn't celebrate anything. There's no way I could write. I don't know if I could write “Momma I'm So Sorry” to that.

YRB: What got you in this mindset for this album?

Pusha: You know, the new label situation. Just getting back in tune with The Neptunes, and just having that carefree drive was having that feeling of no handcuffs on you. Having them see us wanting to work and make a successful album. It's just all conducive to a great work environment and a great album.

YRB: You guys are with Columbia on this one. How does this compare to releasing records on Jive?

Pusha: I feel that we're connected with the label and the label people. Like we have good, constructive conversations. We can talk and people are actually paying attention to you.

YRB: Let's talk about the tracks. Everyone has their own favorite joint from the album. Which one is most personal to you?

Pusha: “Freedom.” I think it's one of my most poignant verses. It's a verse that I address a lot of personal issues, with like the loss of family, the loss of love, the loss of the miscommunication of being in a rap group with your brother, the way that I view the fans, the way that I view bloggers [laughs]. Just attacking it from a space, and at the end of it, I realized, wow, I had really attacked it and without some of the things that we're criticized for like the drugs and so forth. When I finished that, I was like, wow, OK. I hope y'all notice. I only write about my life, so I only write about things that mean something to me. So in every verse there's something. Even in “Popular Demand,” I discuss it. There's something that I'm addressing. If you're listening to “Doorman” and when you watch the video. It's just that to me, “Freedom” was a record that embodied… There was a summary of the industry of feelings of the loss of friends, love, so on and so forth.

YRB: You’ve got a lot of guest stars on this album, but was there anyone in particular that you reached out to that you couldn’t get on the joint?

Pusha: Yeah. I reached out to a couple of guys. Jeezy, Drake as well. This is early. I don't know what happened. We were taking too long.

YRB: I know you guys are pretty prolific. How did you decide which songs would make the final cut as opposed to be saved for a mixtape or something like that?

Pusha: We don't make extra songs. So what you see is what you get. There's no archive of Clipse records around. We attack a number and leave it at that.

YRB: I think that's every fan's dream though, that there would be an arsenal of Clipse records waiting to be unleashed.

Pusha: Yeah. There's nothing. Not til next album.

YRB: Back when Hell Hath No Fury dropped, you had a pretty strong concert regimen. Do you plan to go as hard on the concert grind as you did last time?

Pusha: For sure. And even better. I'm trying to put a good show together. An awesome, awesome show together.

YRB: What sort of show do you have in mind?

Pusha: Very B-Boy. It's been very B-Boy thus far, and we're going to do a little bit more entertaining, more than just for the purists, you know what I'm saying?

YRB: So a live backing band kind of thing?

Pusha: Nah, I don't like a live band for some reason. The Roots and a couple other guys, like the N.E.R.D. band and Wale's band, they do it really good. I actually performed Hell Hath No Fury and “Momma I'm So Sorry,” stuff like that, with The Roots. And I was like, “Damn, I love this!” I tried it with other people, and it didn't work so good. It wasn't that caliber of musicianship. I just can't do it.

YRB: You’ve already released a few videos for the album. Is the plan to record a clip for every track on it?

Pusha: Well, we're planning another four right now. So maybe not every one, but there's a hell of a lot of them.

YRB: Anything else we should expect from you?

Pusha: Look out for Play Cloths, and thanks for all the support.

YRB: Love the record by the way, it's hot.

Pusha: I appreciate it too, because you gotta understand, Hell Hath No Fury is probably my favorite album ever made, so I had to retune my thinking to create this one. And I'm glad that you like this record and know how to appreciate this one as well.

YRB: It's different. It takes you to a different zone and has a different vibe.

Pusha: I appreciate that, because some guys are like, “Aw man, it ain't no 'Momma I'm So Sorry',” but I can't write that every day. If I did, I'd sit back and ride [Laughs].