Clipse - We Got It 4 Cheap Vol. 2 (2005)

Ever unlucky Clipse’s second pre-Hell Hath No Fury effort: label troubles leading the duo to form the Re-Up Gang with Ab-Liva and Sandman and release two fuck the labels, here’s for the fans! mixtapes, the second being the better one. Easily. Still stands as one of the best mixtapes ever. Re-Up Gang go hard with one-liner after one-liner, too many and too witty to keep up with, over stolen beats. My favourite is Hate It Or Love It ‘cause I loved the original already and Clipse better it. A year later their style and lyricism would be met with a perfect set of beats, but it’s fun hearing these apathetic smart-asses on nice beats we recognize from assorted non-apathetic contexts.

A

Clipse - Til The Casket Drops (2009)

Tony doing time for what he did to nostrils

I attribute the general belief that Til The Casket Drops is anything less than good to the written opinion of various critics and taste-makers who wanted a return to Hell Hath No Fury's hushed nihilism, but instead got a dope ass pop rap album and didn't know what to do with it. I buy it when Pusha raps the clear conscience of Pusha is long overdue and later Malice: life is with your kids watching Madagascar. I buy the way they break from detached, icy flows, and do it over decidedly big and human beats. I like the way their apathetic keys open doors mantra can either be taken as social critique a la Jay-Z, or something more saccharine, on top of what it meant back in 2006.

All that gets an 8/10. Production, lyrics, consistency, all good.

As an aside, some mention needs to be made of Yeezy's verse on Kinda Like A Big Deal. Is the part where he raps about his pyjamas and then goes on to call himself "the black Marshall meets Jay" funnier, or the part where he boasts about getting head from a retarded girl? I know he thinks he's the best and if he truly was the black Marshall meets Jay, that'd be fact (they're my favs!), but mention of pyjamas and premature ejaculation kinda seem at odds with what he's saying! I guess all that just makes it even cooler that their next collaboration would be the douchebag-off in 2010's epic Runaway.

A-

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Clipse - Hell Hath No fury (2006)

Hearing Clipse for the first time on their debut Lord Willin' was jarring- these cool motherfuckers birthed two personas to replace the world's notion of the criminal turned rapper- nothing exaggerated or sensationalized, but pure detached matter-of-fact apathy. Whether society's the problem (I'm from Virginia where ain't shit to do but cook/pack it up, sell it triple price/fuck the books), or it was a fate chosen solely for the Thorntons (on Intro where their trade's as much a part of their DNA as Danny's family's addiction in DNA), they're a new breed of America's nightmare taught motherfucker hit you then you better hit 'em back. They'll hit back but not to motivate anything like Jeezy or spit venom like Killer Mike (now we took the crack and put it in rap/ now your kids is high off of that), but dispassionately, which is scarier

All of this'd be fine if there was some trace of humanity in the production, but on Hell Hath No Fury The Neptunes really nailed catchy and creative but also minimal and alien. The Clipse duo too- their wordplay creative, their flows icy and monotone, the delight in telling the listener how they do things- every detail. In the end it all just serves to capture the immorality of their trade- they'll write a song called Mama I'm So Sorry precisely because they're not (sorry ma!) and sum up everything they are, have been, and ever will be with the line keys open doors

Get it?? 'Cause keys is also...

Yeah, you get it

A+

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