The image at the top of this post doesn't really have anything to do with "Chains & Whips," the new Clipse/Kendrick Lamar collaboration that still hasn't actually been released. Instead, it's a screengrab from the video for "Nosetalgia," an absolute monster of a track that came out 12 years ago. Unless I'm forgetting something, that was the last time that Pusha T and Kendrick Lamar were on a song together. Now, it's happening again, and the consequences have already been significant.
In a few weeks, Clipse, the widely beloved duo of Virginia Beach brothers Malice and Pusha T, will release their much-anticipated reunion album Let God Sort Em Out, produced entirely by Pharrell. The rollout has been magnificent. Early singles "Ace Trumpets" and "So Be It" are bangers, and the latter includes some pointed shots at Travis Scott, who hasn't exactly been a pivotal figure in recent Clipse history. They've had some small interactions, but it mostly seems like Pusha just doesn't like him -- something he's been happy to elucidate in the many interviews that he's given behind the project. In another of those interviews, Pusha also told the story of why both he and Clipse, as a group, are no longer affiliated with Def Jam. "Chains & Whips," a song from the new album, has a Kendrick Lamar feature, and Universal, Def Jam's parent company, was too scared to release a track with Drake's two most feared adversaries at a moment that Drake is currently suing the label.
To hear Pusha tell it, he refused to remove the Kendrick Lamar feature, which was in the can a long time ago and which is obviously something that you want on your rap album in 2025. That's why Clipse are releasing Let God Sort Em Out through Jay-Z's Roc Nation company. Pusha said that this is all happening even though nobody throws shots, veiled or otherwise, at Drake on "Chains & Whips." We still don't get to hear the whole track, but videos of Clipse and Pharrell playing "Chains & Whips" for people at what appears to be the roof of Louis Vuitton's Paris headquarters on the first day of Fashion Week popped up on Instagram overnight. That means we now get total access to the Kendrick verse, even if it's not the CDQ version.
"Chains & Whips" sounds nasty, and it's got Kendrick Lamar going into that state where he channels demon energies. Where he spent much of his "Nosetalgia" verse hitting the syllable "ten" from every angle, he does the same thing with "gen" here: "They said I couldn't reach Gen' Z, you fuckin' dickheads/ You must be full of that ginseng, here comes the jinx, yeah/ Ain't genetics, been synthetic, screamin' they genius/ A finger waved, they all fall, n***as is Jenga." Listen for yourself below.
Last night, Clipse also performed in futuristic Adidas Adistar Jellyfish that aren't out yet. Since Adidas is the only sneaker company that actually makes shoes in my size, I will take this opportunity to say that I would wear these.
Pusha T and Malice of the Clipse debut new Pharrell x adidas Adistar Jellyfish in Parispic.twitter.com/6GlmBJjRVr
— Modern Notoriety (@ModernNotoriety) June 23, 2025
Let God Sort ‘Em Out is out 7/11 via Roc Nation.
