{"id":11350,"date":"2025-09-09T08:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T08:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/11350\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T08:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T08:59:09","slug":"let-god-sort-em-out-rapreviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/11350\/","title":{"rendered":"Let God Sort Em Out \u2013 RapReviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re gen alpha<\/a> and you don\u2019t understand why \u201cLet God Sort Em Out<\/a>\u201d had so many people old enough to be your parents excited, I get it. It\u2019s been a long time since the first Clipse<\/a> album debuted. 2002. An entire generation has come and gone (millennials<\/a>) since Pharrell Williams gave them the sound that had everybody \u201cGrindin’\u201d like crazy once the beat dropped. If you remember those days and you weren\u2019t already feeling old this fact won\u2019t help \u2014 a full SIXTEEN YEARS passed between \u201cTil the Casket Drops<\/a>\u201d and now. That\u2019s what I want our younger readers to understand. The idea of Pusha T and Malice reuniting for another joint together seemed nigh impossible.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as though Gene Elliott Thornton Jr.<\/a> and Terrence LeVarr Thornton<\/a> had beef. They\u2019re brothers. They\u2019re family. Things changed after the third album failed to achieve their personal and professional goals. They explored recording solo albums, then Malice decided to follow a path of spirituality and change his name to \u201cNo Malice,\u201d embracing religion and eschewing the sinfulness he saw in rap generally and his own life specifically. That seemed to be the final nail in the coffin of another Clipse album. No matter how much the fans wanted it the brothers had amicably gone in different directions. With continued success as a solo act<\/a> and his strong reputation as a guest star and freestyle battle rapper, what motivation did Pusha T even have to reunite with his big bro? Maybe it was up to Malice to make the first move and bring Clipse back together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the only one to walk away and really be free
As far as I\u2019m concerned, I do really be he [\u2026]
Came back for the money, that\u2019s the devil in me
Had to HYDE it from the church, that\u2019s the Jekyll in me\u201d \u2013 Malice<\/p>\n

The strength of his bars on \u201cP.O.V.\u201d shows why Malice felt it was time. He can still talk his game and cash that check, so long as he can be honest with his brother and the listening audience about his internal conflicts. That\u2019s so fundamental to \u201cLet God Sort Em Out<\/a>\u201d that it can\u2019t possibly be overstated. Clipse are not here to simply rehash their old glory, even when they tease it by having children perform the chorus of their most signature hit. These figurative and literal brothers have changed a lot since the early 2000\u2019s, and for them to reunite with each other let alone their sonic architect Pharrell meant the music had to reflect who they ARE and not just who they WERE.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I\u2019m ten times the E.B.I.T.D.A
If you let the money talk, who speaking up
I\u2019m sleepwalking, y\u2019all don\u2019t dream enough
My third passport, I ain\u2019t seen enough\u201d \u2013 Pusha T<\/p>\n

On one level songs like \u201cE.B.I.T.D.A.\u201d feel like a throwback to their raw street dealer raps, but hidden in both the acronym and the lyrics are players who went from rookies to veterans. They didn\u2019t just spend what they got like there was no tomorrow. They invested in themselves and their future and the evidence is found in \u201cLet God Sort Em Out<\/a>\u201d being self-released. Hell getting Pharrell to produce an entire album in 2025 is a flex given how in demand he is and what he can afford to charge for a single beat. I\u2019m sure since they are old friends everybody negotiated a favorable rate and may even share percentage points on album sales and streaming revenue. It\u2019s none of my business how it works as long as the MUSIC works. Hearing Nas on the title track\/\u201dChandeliers\u201d I have no doubt it does.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pantheon is a family, we some upstanding G\u2019s
The difference between regular spitters and bosses
My principles\u2019 high
You need a glimpse of me from satellites in orbit\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t enough for Clipse to reunite after 16 years. The brothers still did things together here and there even if it wasn\u2019t whole albums. There wasn\u2019t animosity keeping them apart \u2014 it was down to whether or not they could gel and recreate the spark that first took them to stardom. It\u2019s there but like a whiskey aged in oak barrels it has matured over time. Pusha is still boisterous and Malice is still underrated, but even the title of \u201cLet God Sort Em Out<\/a>\u201d shows us the truth. It\u2019s an old saying that tends to be attributed to the wickedness of inquisitions<\/a> in the middle ages \u2014 \u201ckill \u2019em all and let God sort \u2019em out.\u201d The Lord would know who deserved to go to heaven or hell and thus the murderer was absolved because he was simply an instrument of God.<\/p>\n

Besides the fact that idea is a moral fallacy on its face its not what the brothers mean here. Whether you believe in faith as much as Malice or not, what\u2019s been \u201csorted\u201d here is their ability to work together, and if you listen closely each has taken cues from the other. Pusha is more thoughtful and Malice is more cocksure. Through the alchemy of Pharrell Williams the result is their finest work to date. I wouldn\u2019t call this a Christian album, but I would call it a spiritual one. As impressive as the guest list is (Kendrick, Tyler, Nas, Stove God Cooks, The-Dream, et cetera) the most impressive thing here is that Clipse came back when rap needed them the most and didn\u2019t half ass a single part of it just to cash a check.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re gen alpha and you don\u2019t understand why \u201cLet God Sort Em Out\u201d had so many people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-11350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}