Clipse are finally releasing their new album, Let God Sort Em Out, in July via Roc Nation, but apparently the record was supposed to be released on Def Jam until a censorship dispute arose between the label and the sibling hip-hop duo of Pusha T and No Malice.
In a new interview with GQ, Pusha T explained that the first song to emerge from their recording sessions for the record was called "Chains & Whips," and features a guest verse from Kendrick Lamar. Def Jam's parent company, Universal Music Group (UMG), was reportedly concerned about the optics of the situation, with Lamar and Push being among the most vocal critics of Drake — the company's client, with whom they remain embroiled in a legal battle over the "defaming" accusations Lamar made in the 2024 hit "Not Like Us."
Pusha T told journalist Franzier Thorpe that he thought Def Jam's concerns were "stupid" and insisted that none of Lamar's lyrics could be perceived as a Drake diss. However, the label — to which Pusha T was still also signed as a solo artist at the time — issued Clipse an ultimatum.
"They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing," the rapper said of the song teased recently at Pharrell's Louis Vuitton fashion show. "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…"
Eventually, Def Jam did decide to let both Clipse and Pusha T walk away, and the duo shopped around the completed album and "plenty more music," eventually landing with JAY-Z's Roc Nation. "I think that that synergy, just in a rap sense, is going to speak volumes," Pusha T said about the new partnership.
Of Drake's UMG lawsuit, Pusha added, "I don't rate him no more. 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?"
The company filed to dismiss Drake's lawsuit — which he had amended in April to include UMG allegedly promoting "Not Like Us" via Lamar's Super Bowl performance and consenting to the song being played at the Grammys, after initially filing back in January — for the second time early last month, calling the rapper's new allegations "astonishing."