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Clipse Album Review: HELL HATH NO FURY

“These are days of our lives [and] I’m sorry to my fans, but them crackers weren’t playing fair at Jive“ – Pusha T, “Mr. Me Too“.

How does one commit rap career suicide? The answer is the same as it’s been for the last 25 years. To kill your rap career simply wait more than 2 years to come out with your next album. RAP IS THE MOST DYNAMIC GENRE ON EARTH. What style is hot today is old stale cheese the next. Rap is fueled by the energy of the youth. That means that energy is constantly in motion and constantly changing sporadically. It’s this spontaneous, perpetual motion in hiphop that makes it so great. You’ll never get too bored with rap because some new style will hit you over the head real soon. So you have to wonder why the Clipse rap duo waited over FOUR years to drop again. Remember “Grindin” came out in 2002!!! WAY BACK in 2002 I remember coming home around 4 AM in the morning in Chicago and turning on MTV and seeing “Grindin” for the first time. I almost nut in my pantz!! I hadn’t heard something so raw and sinister since Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones”!! The genius part about the song was that the track was so simple that it made the song even rawer cause they just spit rhyme for rhyme over your basic hardcore rap track. I felt they were taking things back to the essence of hiphop – Raw beats and Raw rhymes. On top of that their demeanor was way too cool, calm and collective for neophytes like themselves. Of course Pharrell and the Neptunes produce their music so they had the advantage of being well schooled. So Clipse drops their debut album LORD WILLIN and they go on to sell over a million copies while putting out about 8 different remixes to “Grindin” cause it was THE SONG of the summer of 2002.

But that’s when the two brothers Pusha T and Malice would endure years of music hell as they became embroiled in a bitter fight to stay musically alive as their record label dissolved and merged which eventually prevented the release of their second album. Just ask the group that started NY hardcore, Black Moon, how costly a battle with your record company can be. Black Moon released one of the best hardcore albums NY has ever witnessed in their epic release of ENTA DA STAGE only to vanish from the face of hiphop practically overnight due to label disputes that delayed their next album release for years. By the time album # 2 came out Black Moon had lost their luster and rap moved on without them (Wonder what Buckshot Shorty is even doing these days??...Washing cars or asking “Can I take your order?"). Now you have Clipse trying to enta da stage 4 to 5 years after their debut album with the release of their LOOONNNG awaited new album called HELL HATH NO FURY that has them apologizing to fans for taking so long to come out. You have to wonder how the heck these guys survived so long with no loot coming from the label and no rap tours keeping their bank roll fat. I guess having super-producer and millionaire Pharrell as your best buddy allows one to weather the roughest times. Clipse said they were inactive so long that they felt they “forgot how to rap” almost. They did release TWO highly critical mix tapes in between albums called WE GOT IT FOR CHEAP VOLUME 1 AND 2 to try to stay in the game but the mix tape game ONLY keeps you in the loop with those hiphop heads that don’t even buy albums. You gotta be out there in the national scene if you want that true buzz. So here they came late last year with their super single “Mr. Me Too” which definitely hit just as hard as “Grindin”. But what the rap world wanted to know was could they really still bring it on an entire album?

So you would think that Clipse would be so desperate to regain their fame that they would come out nationally again strictly commercial and do jiggaboo dances for all the white people who are responsible for rap even being commercially viable as they buy most of the hiphop out there. But to Clipse’s credit they came out as hard as ever with “Mr. Me Too” that ended up getting massive airplay simply because everyone knows a lying a$$ “Mr. Me Too” as well. Then it only takes one quick listen to the intro to their new album and the songs that follow to realize Clipse aren’t about to compromise their style for fleeting cheesy commercial fame. Right on the intro they hit you with a right hook on “We Got it For Cheap” which has them letting you know they had tough times but they’re back. Peep Malice’s verse describing the pain they experienced when their original record label failed them – “Now I see, My leg was pulled, the jokes on me, So heart breaking like loving a wh$$e, Might hurt you once, BUT NEVER NO MORE!!, it’s like trying to FLY, but they clipping yo wings, and that’s exactly why the caged bird sings..Seems to me reparations are over due, I done been to the top, I done sipped the juice and with that being said, bird crumbs will never do…Keep the pranks as I bid farewell....”. As further proof of their intent on keeping their hardcore stylo alive witness “Momma I’m So Sorry”, “Ride Around Shining” and “Chinese New Year”.

The latter makes you want to never forget to lock your doors at night as the chorus goes “I’m at your door, your eyes are like WHY ARE YOU HERE?!!, Judging by my steel I got something to do here, Give up the money or that angel cries two tears, front of your crib sounding like Chinese New Year…”. Then Malice backs his chorus up with the lines: “Mask on face, glock in hand, I was in and out of homes like the Orkin man…Fall victim to the Click Clack clan, my Vixen eat your face like she’s Ms. Pac man, My wish her command...”. Last but not least though is probably the hardest song on the album, “Keys Open Doors” that simply put doesn’t disappoint and will have you calling your homies when you hear Malice say “I yell re-up till I’m locked like Mumia and get it cross state with the Grace of Maria, ..keys on the floor, Mistress in Dior, Bi$$h tells me she loves me but I know she’s a wh$$re, Sh&& could get ugly if she talks to the law, and that’s just what I get, It’s the Roses of War, (but) F$$k the Bureau I’d rather be spending Euros, we get fed grapes, fu$$ ho’s in plurals…”.

There is a slightly lighter side of the album though. Clipse also released the club banger “Wamp Wamp (What it Do)” featuring Slim Thug that comes off as the perfect blend of mass appeal and hardcore appeal. It features some Cuban sounding percussion and drums and hard kicking bass undertones that makes you feel like you’re partying at South Beach but the lyrics are based more on the PORT OF MIAMI as the Clipse blast you with mega drug references as that’s what they do best. While that song is your normal type club banger I was TOTALLY caught off guard by three songs in particular that are unlike any songs I’ve heard out there in today’s hiphop. The New Age sound starts out with “Hello New World” that features a quirky sung chorus mixed in with the street poetics of Pusha and Malice.

Pusha says perhaps his best lines ever on this song..Peep it… - “See I was 16, eyes full of hope, Bagging up grams at the Hyatt though, THE NEWS CALLED IT CRACK, I CALLED IT DIET COKE, at the same time hiding from mama, dodging the drama, fu$$ing plenty Bit$$es while ducking the baby’s mama, I found poetry, EXCUSE ME, floetry..Ocean in my backyard where it’s supposed to be, funny how my neighbors DON’T think it’s where I’m supposed to be…”. The new flavor continues with “Trill” which sounds like an old school Cameo track with a new twist that has Pusha T doing his best Biggie impersonation as he rhymes in stuttered rhyme patterns that totally distort his voice and then Malice comes through and closes down the shop with his climatic word play. Then we get treated to perhaps the best song on the album called “A’int Cha” that sounds like a new age “Ha” as the chorus has a Juvenile rhyme flow that asks the listener question after question regarding how they are trying to come up – “Hmmm, you trying to slang in the rain ain’t cha?, Hmmm, You trying to save for that RANGE ain’t cha?...Hmmm…You trying to perfect your aim ain’t cha?...Hmmm..You trying to get that big chain ain’t cha?..Hmmm…Say what? You gonna get that hood fame ain’t ya?”. Trust me when I say this song goes the F$$K off. Again the point is some true innovative flavor is being witnessed here with these three aforementioned songs. Why “Ain’t Cha” wasn’t released is a mystery to me. Better yet none of the three aforementioned innovative songs were released to my knowledge. That’s just dumb. The world needs to hear this flavor.

Only downside to the album I can even think of is the simplistic “Dirty Money” that features a track that a 2 year old could produce yet still has one of my favorite pimp lines of all time “You ain’t gotta love me, Just be convincing”. Then we have “Nightmares” that is more experimental than anything else yet still has flavor as it’s sort of a remake of “My Mind is Playing Tricks On Me” by the Geto Boys. All in all this album represents good entertainment which is what the music business is all about. Yes there are about a thousand drug metaphors on this album and dozens more references to unwarranted violence. But music is entertainment just like a movie is entertainment. It makes me sick to my stomach when critics and even friends of mine try to attack gangsta hiphop and claim it’s corrupting the kids. Yet these same idiots are PRAISING Quentin Tarantino and other violent movie directors like Robert Rodriguez who both kill WAY more innocent people in their movies than NWA’s Greatest Hits Album ever did.

Grow up dummies. Hiphop and music in general just like movies is just another form of entertainment. And certainly this album HELL HATH NO FURY is one of the best entertaining albums to come out lately. I personally made it a point to own an authentic copy of this album cause I truly enjoy listening to it. Most of you suckaz will now go download this album now that you know it’s tight, but trust when I say it’s worth buying. How is hardcore rap gonna continue to thrive when it’s biggest fans and people who can understand the lyrics the most keep choosing to not support their favorite hardcore artists? I’m all for downloading albums at first cause ever since probably 1998 most rappers stopped trying to put every ounce of their soul in albums. But when you find an album worth buying you should do so. Come to Benz0’s house and you’ll be able to find the authentic CD cover of this album cause it’s one of those diamond in the rough albums that I’ll be bumping for quite some time. Follow in my footsteps once you download and procure the authentic CD for yourself. It’s NOT a hiphop classic like XXL magazine claims BUT it is a solid hardcore hiphop album that won’t disappoint and is worth your $13.99.

Benz0
Contact Benz0: BenzWritings@Hotmail.com