The Clipse, André 3000 and the importance of artistic inspiration at our big ages

The Clipse’s “Let God Sort Em Out” is a reminder that talent doesn’t age out of hip-hop, but without purpose, you might need to pick up a flute.

(Screenshot, NPR via YouTube)

On Friday, The Clipse released their much-anticipated fourth solo album, “Let God Sort Em Out” (LGSEO), their first album since 2009’s “Til The Casket Drops.” The album’s release was preceded by a promotional rollout that I’m sure will be talked about for years to come. For a coke-rap duo whose first album was released over 20 years ago and who have always been more critical darlings than commercial behemoths, the press run included Paris Fashion Week song drops, interviews with media outlets, including legacy (New York Times, GQ, etc.) and hip-hop (“The Joe Budden Podcast,” “The Breakfast Club”), where they (really Pusha T) let off shots at various figures in music who have dared come into their crosshairs like Travis Scott, Drake and Kanye West.

The day the album was released, so was a Clipse mini-concert on one of the most popular genre-neutral platforms in culture, NPR’s Tiny Desk. It was a press run that felt like it belonged to legends returning to take back a space they’d once let go.

And LGSEO, as it turns out, lived up to the hype. The brothers Thornton—Gene as Malice and Terrence as Pusha T—sound as sharp as ever, but more intentional and more purposeful. Look, The Clipse have always been spitters—their allure has always been the fact that they apparently moved all the weight in and around the Virginia Beach area and could also spit—but when the beats, rhymes and life mesh as they do on LGSEO, it’s just different. The creative partnership and kinship with The Neptunes, and specifically Pharrell, is palpable and authentic. I won’t even pretend like I was the biggest fan of The Clipse, but the product, no pun intended, is undeniable.

From the album’s opening song, “The Birds Don’t Sing,” a moving tribute to both their mother and father who passed four months apart in 2021, the brothers are in lockstep with one another at delivering songs that matter to them. Not to say that every song has so much purpose, but that’s almost besides the point. Their chemistry is insane. Being brothers does most of the heavy lifting on their synergy, but the fact that they’ve been in business together forever, whether in moving weight or rapping and having one another’s backs is evident. It must feel great to do something you love with somebody who you know understands you in full because they not only know where you’ve been, but have been where you’ve been in the trenches with you. Their sense of purpose is evident.