REVIEW: CLIPSE - LET GOD SORT EM OUT

4/5

Lord's Will

"Kids, y'all need to stay away from anything that remotely looks like this, right here," Malice says, as he and his Pusha T brother unload clips at a shooting range. This was a scene from the 2003 short film 'The Eighth Planet' documenting super producers Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams. All for content on a bonus DVD to their compilation album 'The Neptunes Presents...Clones'. And Malice wasn't 'Frontin''. Years later, one half of the 'Grindin'' pair from Virginia would turn to the church like Pastor Mase, and Lord knows what he has seen. After their 'Lord Willin'' debut changed the VA game like Timbaland and the late, great Magoo (Rest Peacefully), Clipse copped discs like the soaring sophomore set 'Hell Hath No Fury' and the perfect 'P###y' on the 'Barbershop' soundtrack, that you saw them freestyle, back in the business of 'The Eighth Planet' DVD. 2009's 'Til The Casket Drops' didn't hit quite the same way, but it was no death sentence. Now, a sweet sixteen years later, it's welcome back to Malice in a wonderland with his rapping partner, once again.

Clipse reload after the hiatus with 'Let God Sort Em Out', and meeting their maker, you're not going to get it for cheap any more, like a classic mixtape. Pusha T has been making solo sets and G.O.O.D.  Music for years, garnering Grammys like my man G. His most recent, 2022's 'It's Almost Dry', sealed his status. Now, God sorts them out with the blaring 'Ace Trumpets' deal of a single. Not to mention cameos from a worth the six figures Kendrick Lamar (on the flossing crack of 'Chains & Whips'), Tyler The Creator (the only 'P.O.V.' I mess with, I despise content creation, too) and John Legend (on the outstanding opener, 'The Birds Don't Sing', that paints a picture of everything Clipse have been through with the Voices Of Fire). But it's the big budget 'Inglorious Basterds', like Tarantino, that brings a re-upping old friend Ab-Liva back to the gang, scarring scalps. Elsewhere, Stove God Cooks helps heat up 'F.I.C.O.' The title-track, mind you, mixed with some Sia like 'Chandeliers', brings God M.C. Nas swinging like Ali. 

On the promo single 'So Be It', the perfect pair sample Talal Maddah's 'Maza Akool Wa Kad Hemto'. And it's perfect production like this that will keep you hooked across the set, bridge to chorus. That's what you get when Pharrell Williams is once again manning the boards, piece by piece. Vocally he even appears on a lion's share of tracks. Basically, the last half of the LP. 'E.B.I.T.D.A', 'So Far Ahead', 'All Things Considered', with The-Dream, and the classic closer 'By The Grace Of God', in all it's and His beauty. For all the initials on 'M.T.B.T.T.F.', Pusha T raps, "No confessions, questions, we contestin'/Fireworks'll send a message, iridescent/Slow him down like Robitussin, if you rush in/At your door when we address him, we gon' bless him". Whilst Malice counters, "Gunning and I'm grinning/In a Bugatti in my denim/This is the result of my vision/React with precision/But God only knows my intention." And it's just so good to hear them back together. The Gallagher's aren't the only brothers to reunite against the odds this year. This rap cipher is an oasis. And today is going to be the day that they throw it back to you. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Ace Trumpets', 'Inglorious Basterds (Feat. Ab-Liva)', 'By The Grace Of God (Feat. Pharrell Williams)'.

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