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Clipse plans to join forces with Kendrick Lamar on their long-awaited album, but the collaboration reportedly cost them a record deal at their longtime label Def Jam.
On Monday, June 2, GQ published its cover story featuring Pusha T and Malice after they confirmed the release date for their highly anticipated album Let God Sort Em Out. Deep within the profile, the Virginia-based duo confirmed their fourth studio album was actually completed last year. They played the album for Def Jam, who loved every minute of it except for their collaboration with K.Dot called "Chains & Whips."
“They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing,” Push 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… ”
Apparently, Def Jam's parent company UMG was uneasy about the optics of two of Drake's biggest enemies on a track together. The collaboration would drop in the middle of Drizzy's lawsuit against the label following the Canadian rapper's explosive beef with K.Dot. Pusha T thinks Def Jam's concerns about their collaboration are "stupid," especially since Lamar's bars have zero reference to his beef with Drake. After the duo refused to censor Lamar, Def Jam responded by terminating their contracts with both Clipse and Pusha T, who had a solo deal with the label.
Def Jam's decision allowed Clipse to shop their new album, complete with a Kendrick Lamar collaboration, around to other labels until they landed at JAY-Z's Roc Nation Distribution. The duo feels a lot more "supported and energized" at its new home with Push saying the "synergy, just in a rap sense, is going to speak volumes." When asked if a new song with JAY-Z was in the works, Push didn't exactly downplay the possibility.
“We made history a couple of times,” Pusha T says. “I feel like being in business is a bigger link up than any verse.”
Clipse dropped "Ace Trumpets," the first single from the album, last Friday. The duo's first full-length project in over 15 years is set to drop July 11 via Roc Nation.