What We Learned From Clipse's GQ Interview: Kendrick Lamar Feature, "Story Of Adidon" Politics & Mor

The Kings of the Pyrex are officially back in front of the stove for the first time in nearly 16 years. The Clipse have been teasing a reunion for about five years at this point, but up until It's Almost Dry, Pusha T's excellent 2022 opus, it felt like more of a teaser of a reunion that may not happen rather than something concrete that has the ability actually to manifest into an album. "I Pray For You" felt like the best illustration of the brothers' chemistry and their growth, even after a decade and a half. "Rarely do you see the phoenix rise from the ashes" couldn't have been a better opening line to the song to mark what felt like the true return of the Clipse, especially against the backdrop of organ keys and Labrinth's lush vocals. However, it's No Malice's impressive thought-provoking and technically sound delivery that closes out the album that truly stands as a testament to the magic that the Clipse have kept in tact, even through Malice's more spiritually-oriented bars have taken precedence as a source of reflection rather than the active details of the coke trade.




Since that album, we've heard a number of snippets-an homage to their late parents titled "Birds Don't Sing" with John Legend, and "Chains And Whips," which apparently includes a Kendrick Lamar feature and plenty of shots at Jim Jones. Fortunately, the actual launch of the album began on Friday with "Ace Trumpets," confirming that the duo's forthcoming album, Let God Sort Em Out, will drop on July 11th via Roc Nation. With Pharrell fully in charge of production (unfortunately, Chad Hugo's absence means no more Neptunes), it appears that Pusha T will be bringing No Malice along for his 2025 Album Of The Year tour. And from what GQ's Frazier Tharpe reported in his latest GQ profile with the duo, there's a strong chance that the Clipse will reign supreme on year-end lists in 2025.




Tharpe dove deep with the duo, touching on everything from their recent deal with Roc Nation and a potential deal with Jay-Z, and how it was the result of a ripple effect within the Drake-Kendrick Lamar-UMG saga that's playing out. More than anything, Push also touches on his feelings with his Toronto foe, and the true reason behind the UMG lawsuit surrounding "Not Like Us." Below, we've highlighted 5 essential points from this piece.




Read More: Pusha T On Rap Album Of The Year: "I Want What's Mine"

Kendrick Lamar's Feature Expanded The Roc Nation Umbrella

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pusha T (@kingpush)

The past few years have been mildly confusing for Pusha T, the former president of G.O.O.D Music. After Def Jam cut ties with the Yeezy-led label, all artists fell under the Def Jam umbrella, which, in itself, is under the UMG umbrella. However, the interesting part about all of this is that Let God Sort Em Out was practically ready to go as early as 2024-the same year that UMG had to confront the turbulence between having two sworn enemies, Drake and Kendrick Lamar, going at it on wax. Even though Pusha T also shares similar grievances toward Drake (maybe not as intensely), this was ultimately enough of an issue that led UMG to cut ties with the Clipse entirely, leading to their deal with Roc Nation.




Apparently, just the presence of Kendrick Lamar alone created significant storms in the Def Jam/UMG offices, even though nothing he says allegedly targets his foe. We do know he does rap, "Therapy taught me how to open up/It also showed me I don't give a fuck," on the verse. 




"They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing," he explains. "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...." Well, for UMG, it became a significant loss since there were plenty of other entities willing to put their money behind the Virginia duo.  "It felt good to even see how other labels were buying for the project," Push added.




Read More: Pusha T Makes Rare Appearance At Kendrick Lamar Show And Fans Believe They Know Why He's There

Relationship With Ye: Push Didn't Want To Bring Malice Into The Foolishness

The Pusha T and Ye arc is officially over, especially with the latter's erratic online behavior that goes from loving to hating someone in the blink of an eye. I mean, dude has been glazing Drake for months now and we all know how Drizzy feels about Ye. The amount of this profile dedicated to Pusha T's relationship with Ye is eye-opening. First, we get to see how Kanye became the catalyst for the Clipse album as he invited Malice to Wyoming for the Jesus Is King sessions. Push revealed hesitancy to bring Malice to those sessions, largely because he began seeing the direction Ye was heading toward and didn't want to bring his brother into the "foolishness." Secondly, the two didn't just write for "Use This Gospel," which they appear on. Apparently, they also had a song on "Follow God," which Kanye eventually took for his own project-something that became far too common during Pusha T's productivity in Wyoming.




"I feel like we were [suddenly] convinced that it could happen," Push said about the initial ideas of a reunion during the Wyoming sessions. "But there was so much going on within the whole Ye circle.... If we decided we were going to jump into it, then we should be jumping into it. It wasn't progressing like that. So, I think, if anything, that was a stumble on just trying to make it happen and everybody not just being on the same time schedule. That was bothersome to me."




However, the real fracture between Pusha T and Kanye happened during the Donda sessions in 2021 when Push noticed Ye was playing the industry game. "I realized at certain points that I was really alone in everything that was going on as far as rap drama, so on and so forth," Push said. He said that ultimately his concern was for everyone involved but he slowly realized that everyone was having their own agendas working during these sessions. 




Eventually, Ye burned that bridge, as he's done with every other bridge he's burnt. "It's like, bro, you've been mentioning me, screaming about me.... You got every soul believing that I've done such a great injustice to you. And that's a lie. He goes on his rants. The one thing that I can say about him is that he knows that every issue that he's having and crying about online right now, I've told him distinctly about those things, distinctly. So when he gets up there and with his KKK mask and he's screaming behind it like a pro wrestler-he got to scream behind a mask. He don't talk to me like he talks to others."




However, the real reason why they aren't cool with each other? "But...let me tell you something. He's a genius. And his intuition is even more genius level, right? But that's why me and him don't get along, because he sees through my fakeness with him. He knows I don't think he's a man. He knows it. And that's why we can't build with each other no more. That's why me and him don't click, because he knows what I really, really think of him. He's showed me the weakest sides of him, and he knows how I think of weak people."




Read More: Kanye West Admits He Misses Pusha T Friendship After Getting Mentioned In New Clipse Track

Drake & The UMG Lawsuit: How "The Story Of Adidon" Plays Into It All

We all know how Pusha T felt when he saw Kendrick give Drake the ass-whooping of the century. However, what we didn't know is how the lawsuit that followed "reminded him too much of 2018." "If [Drake's] adamant to have a lawsuit, it's only because he knows all the things that they did to suppress everything that was happening around 'Adidon' and the verses and the records and things that were happening back then," he said. With that, he suggests that the removal of his verse from Rick Ross's "Maybach Music VI" and his removal from a Pop Smoke single alongside Young Thug was largely orchestrated by Drake and UMG-when the two weren't duking it out in court. 




"I don't rate him no more," Pusha says of Drake's off-wax antics. "The suing thing is bigger than some rap shit. I just don't rate you. Damn, it's like it just kind of cheapens the art of it once we gotta have real questions about suing and litigation. Like, what? For this?"




Elsewhere, he also said that he doesn't seem to take Drake too seriously, considering he went to Toronto and back in one piece. That also extends to the subliminals Drake has sent his way over the years and how he feels that, "I would only engage again if I felt like it."

"I think after everything that had been done, I don't think there was ever anything subliminal to be said ever again in life. Not only just musically, like bro, I actually was in Canada. I actually had a show and made it home," he explained "So, I can't pay attention to none of that. I did the dance for real, not to come back and tip-toe around anything."

What's The Deal With Jim Jones?

"You chasing a feature out of your element" became one of the most scathing bars we've heard from snippets off of this upcoming Clipse album. This one, however, appears on the Kendrick Lamar-assisted "Whips & Chains," which initially debuted at the Louis Vuitton fashion show a few years back. Interestingly, it came on the heels of Jim Jones and Dipset cozying up to Drake following his performances in Harlem. So, for plenty of interviews that followed that concert, Jones became such a big Drake fan that he started taking up the Canadian rapper's beefs. This included a few shots at Pusha T, specifically for his place on Billboard's top rappers list that went viral a few years ago.




"I personally never understood what the interviews were about," Pusha said. "Or why my name kept coming up. It's one thing to keep saying I'm not a top 50 MC, but it's another thing for you not to say that you [yourself] are one. No one asked me about a Top 50 nothing. After about the third interview, I promise you, I said, Man, he must really want me to know what he thinks about me. And that's how [my] verse came. This is what I really think about him. This is what I really think about him. Every line is my true heart."




What's interesting is that after "Whips & Chains" debuted, Jim Jones wasted little time trying to get his lick back. In what likely would've been an interesting battle between industry veterans of the 2000s, Jones returned fire yet Pusha T, specifically, didn't bother responding immediately. Honestly, considering that they have Kendrick Lamar on the song-marking Pusha T's second collaboration with the Compton rapper after "Nosetalgia"-it feels like responding to Jim Jones any further than he did would've been antithetical to this Clipse album.

Is Jay-Z The Secret Feature They've Been Waiting On?

Outside of Jay Electronica, there might not be another rapper in hip-hop who has managed to snag more than one verse from Jay-Z in the past decade. The work that Pusha T and Jay did on "Drug Dealers Anonymous" and "Neck & Wrist" have proven just how incredible they can be on wax together. However, it seems that we might see a third collab between the two in the near future-possibly. After departing from Def Jam, the Clipse announced that they found a new home at Roc Nation where Pusha T will also be releasing new solo music. However, this leads us to a supposed guest feature that they've been waiting on. Considering that Kendrick's verse was already circulating in label boardrooms as early as 2024, we could be into a new high in coke raps, if this Jay-Z feature manifests. Push didn't confirm this to be true but from what the profile indicated, it's very possible.




"'We made history a couple of times,' Push says with a coy smirk, referring to the two elusive Jay features he's nabbed in the past. 'I feel like being in business is a bigger link up than any verse.'"
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