Pusha T Reveals The Reasons Why Def Jam Had An Issue With Kendrick Lamar's Verse

Throughout the rollout for the next Clipse album, Pusha T has dropped quite a few bombshells along the way. On the lead single "Ace Trumpets," the Virginia MC took shots at Kanye West, taunting him mercilessly over where his career is currently at. He then doubled down on his disliking for his former collaborator in the Clipse's explosive GQ interview.




Of course, there's also the Travis Scott angle that was introduced just last week with the second teaser "So Be It." He unleashed on him for his lack of loyalty, particularly for Pharrell Williams, who is extremely close with Pusha. He divulged more on why in that same GQ piece that was fully unleashed following "So Be It" officially dropping.




But it hasn't just been beefs with rappers that have helped propel the noise around Let God Sort Em Out. It's also been the fallout with their now former label, Def Jam. Once again in that interview, Pusha T revealed how difficult it was for them to get this record approved.




It stemmed from Kendrick Lamar's verse on the heavily anticipated "Chains & Whips." However, it was unclear as to what exactly was so sketchy about it. King Push did believe it had to do with two of Drake's biggest enemies linking up on a song following Lamar's battle with him in 2024.




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Clipse New Album

Clipse on Def Jam not wanting Kendrick Lamar verse on their new album

"Let God Sort Em Out" pic.twitter.com/NJnYYdKTMR
— Dre (@drearetas) June 24, 2025

In his words, he said, "They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing. And then they wanted me to take the record off. And so, after a month of not doing it, Steve Gawley, the lawyer over there was like, 'We'll just drop the Clipse.' But that can't work because I'm still there [solo]. But [if] you let us all go..."




Fast forward to a new sit-down with NY Times and he's staying firm on that belief. "In my opinion, they didn't like the optics," Pusha said. He was then asked if there was a line Def Jam really didn't feel comfortable with.




According to the rapper, it was completely "unrelated" to Drake. "They pinpointed a line where the phrase 'trump card' was used. So stupid. The phrase 'trump card' was used and they said that they didn't want any problems with [Donald] Trump or something like that."




Ultimately, he tied it back to the Drake angle saying that they were searching for something to nitpick to halt the song from happening.




Of course, it has since been revealed that Lamar will still have a spot on the album. T's manager revealed they paid a seven-figure payment to get out of their contract just for this to happen.




Let God Sort Em Out will arrive on July 11.




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The post Pusha T Reveals The Reasons Why Def Jam Had An Issue With Kendrick Lamar's Verse appeared first on HotNewHipHop.



via: https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/922979-pusha-t-def-jam-problems-kendrick-lamar-verse