Kendrick Lamar had the industry in a chokehold for all the right and wrong reasons thanks to the Drake beef. In fact, their conflict even led to label execs questioning his appearance on the upcoming Clipse album Let God Sort Em Out.
Pusha T and No Malice recently revealed as such to GQ, explaining how Def Jam (and their parent company UMG) sought to ax Kendrick Lamar's feature on Clipse's new album. Apparently, they didn't like the idea of Drizzy's two biggest hip-hop opps teaming up on a track again.
"They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing," Push said of the labels' "stupid" concern. "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, Let God Sort Em Out ended up on Roc Nation, further fueling rumors that Jay-Z will provide a feature on the LP. We will have to wait until July 11 to find out.
Clipse New Album
Sadly, this is yet another label issue that the Virginia rappers faced in their careers. Compared to previous experiences, though, it's not as disruptive, although it's definitely impactful.
Apparently, Clipse wanted to drop their album last summer, until Def Jam and UMG sought to dismiss Kendrick's feature. An early version of their collaboration, "Chains & Whips," played at Pharrell's first Louis Vuitton show.
Pusha says K.Dot's verse doesn't have anything that could remotely resemble a Drake diss or subliminal, so he didn't understand what all the fuss was about. Maybe Pusha T told Kendrick Lamar about this when he saw a "Grand National" show in Boston.
Elsewhere, we will see if Jay-Z is that mystery Clipse feature they've been waiting on instead. Fans thought they were alluding to the Compton lyricist with their comments, but we now know that's not the case. We will see on July 11 if Def Jam and UMG were right to express concern.
