An Observation and Critique on the Clipse Hysteria

Which is Clipse album is better, 2006's Hell Hath No Fury or 2002's Lord Willin'? Why has Clipse caused such a stir in the indie world? And what does this mean to future patterns in music blogging in regards to genre, quality and exposure?


VS.

Clipse - Wamp Wamp ft Slim Thug (mp3) - Hell Hath No Fury (Re-Up Gang/Zomba 2006)

Clipse - Ain't Cha ft The Re-Up Gang (mp3) - Hell Hath No Fury (Re-Up Gang/Zomba 2006)

Clipse - Young Boy (mp3) - Lord Willin' (Star Trak/Arista 2002)

Clipse - Cot Damn ft AB-Liva & Roscoe P. Coldchain (mp3) - Lord Willin' (Star Trak/Arista 2002)

The widespread success of Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury is pretty remarkable, though maybe not so much in these days of fickle, genre-ignoring fan bases (a good thing of course). The Thorton brothers, Pusha T and Malice, completely dominated year-end lists and blog posts everywhere (sitting somewhat uncomfortably by Destroyer, PB&J, etc) with their long-delayed (3 yrs) sophomore effort. Clipse has been teaming with The Neptunes since the early 90s, when both acts were absolute unknowns, and was the first group signed to The Nep’s Star Trak label, so it’s no surprise that loyalty remains and Pharrell and Chad were saving their best beats for this record. Sparse, metallic and colder than the ice around their necks, The Neptunes lace each track with tinny, pinging synth pops over stern, skeletal drum patterns that do their very best, with a large degree of success, to match the dialectic essence of the emcees’ lyrics, poetic cold-heartedness. Pusha T and Malice do not have a jaw-dropping flow per se, but their crystal clear, flat-voiced drawl actually make them not only instantly recognizable but unsettling in their almost passive recollections of harsh, emotional circumstances. The subject matter is nearly solely about drugs, but less about condoning the use as much as the consequences of being in the game, for better or worse. What’s most impressive is their continuous stream of wit and cleverness within their lyrics; each verse is a seamless strand of one-liners that almost works against them since you occasionally miss a clever reference or analogy because the next line is stinging before you get a chance to fully feel the prior one. Joining the Thorton brothers is their posse The Re-Up Gang, featuring full-throated Philly emcees AB-liva and Sandman, as well as Slim Thug (who contributes an excellent chorus to Wamp Wamp), Roscoe P. Coldchain and Bilal. The guests work well across the board, typically adding a baritone undercut to Clipse’s higher pitched jab. The end result is a very good album of unrelenting minds at a creative high soundtracking the harsh world they live in and completely deserving the amazing amount of praise circulating, but I’m having a little trouble understanding their crossover success (certainly not discouraging it by any means though).

The biggest mystery is why Hell Hath No Fury is having so much more success than Clipse’s debut full-length Lord Willin’ released in 2002. While I would give HHNF four and half stars out of five, I’d quickly reward Lord Willin’ the perfect score. I strongly believe that Clipse and The Neptunes’ first effort was their strongest whether comparing the lyrics, beats, singles and even the artwork (LW’s hand drawn album cover of Pusha and Malice cruising Virginia Beach with Black Jesus is classic). I don’t think I can say the Thorton brothers were any hungrier than they are now while recording LW because passion has never, and I doubt will ever, be a problem; but the fact that this very well could have been and very nearly was their only chance to impact the music industry is an important aspect to consider. I can certainly say the urgency was to a higher degree on LW with a clear conscious though. Lyrically, there are more memorable moments on the first album when either emcee ends a verse or drops a one-liner and you cannot help but say out loud, ‘goddamn’ (hell, they even made Jermaine Dupri and Fabolous sound good). I also feel The Neptunes were in better form for this first outing, especially Pharrell. I have read repeatedly that Chad Hugo was probably more to thank for the dark sparseness of HHNF since he has a history of those kind of tracks; and if that’s true, than you can easily call LW Pharrell’s album. It’s brighter, more upbeat and to put it simply, more fun. Pharrell also sounds a lot more into his singing parts. Compare his emotive croon on Cot Damn from LW with his half-ass chorus from Hello New World on HHNF and tell me what you think. The beats on LW are much more reminiscent of the mutated 80s synth-funk of the N*E*R*D releases which has now been left for dead since the success of Drop It Like Its Hot, which is the style that lines HHNF. I also feel that Grindin’ was a much better single than Mr. Me Too is; it’s no doubt more radio friendly and more creative, even if it does wear on you a bit faster. There is certainly a theme exposing itself here and that’s one of being fun. Perhaps I just prefer more vibrant albums, but it’s as probable that Pusha T, Malice and The Neptunes were just having more fun in 2002, prior to the label madness and entering their 30s. The lyric content is practically the same on both albums, but it seems like the drug game is wearing a bit on the Thorton brothers; the realness and consequences of their lifestyle may be getting harsher by the day. These are conclusions that I will obviously never be able to prove myself, but the reasoning behind the sound of the albums is not what I am as concerned with as is the hysteria surrounding HHNF.

There are a couple reasons that I have been able to come up with to explain this. Firstly, I think it’s obvious that Clipse were ahead of their time with Lord Willin’ no matter what audience you want to refer to. The big rap singles from 2002 were in line with the party/club-oriented theme of Grindin’ like Nelly’s Hot in Herre, Cam’ron’s Oh Boy, and Busta Rhymes’ Pass the Courvoisier, but the albums these singles stem from do not compare to the lyrical and thematic potency of LW. Hip-hop heads during this time were more likely into the increasingly generic rap of MTV, the bubbling underground indie-hop scene or even the first appearances of crunk. The indie world that has embraced HHNF as well was even further from the rap crowd. The same kids who are ranting about Clipse now were going ape-shit for emo (Bright Eyes), electroclash (The Rapture) and NYC garage rock (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) when LW dropped. Why? Simply put, that is what the indie media was spoon-feeding us. This brings me to my much important second reason for the success of HHNF: blogging. In 2002, blogging was in its infancy; in fact, it did not really hit it’s adulthood until this year. The blogs are just about solely responsible for HHNF’s explosion in the indie world, who have somewhat followed in the footsteps of wide-read establishments like Pitchfork’s embrace of mainstream hip-hop (certainly not a knock of any kind, just an observation; I don’t believe Pitchfork even reviewed LW). So the only way Clipse could have even reached these crowds would be through word-of-mouth, MTV/BET or mainstream rap radio, two of the three indie crowds typically ignore completely. So it appears that it’s not an issue of quality but exposure; the indie crowd didn’t embrace LW simply because they weren’t aware of it, or so it seems.

So what the fuck is the point of all of this? Mostly, to give me peace of mind, but also to expose people to the excellence of Clipse’s debut Lord Willin’ and especially, to remind people to never pigeonhole your listening choices. Expose yourself to everything because more than likely you are missing something excellent. The blog world, though hated on by a lot of people, is helping with this exponentially and I believe the music world as a whole will be better for it. One interesting question is: a few decades from now, will there be crate-digging blogs (or more probably, whatever entity music blogs eventually evolve into with progressing technology) looking back at so much overlooked music like we have now? Everything these days has the ability to be exposed regardless of the financial restraints that plagued young artists in the past. Is the long-lost, overlooked gem now a thing of the past?

Oh. And go buy Lord Willin, you absolutely won’t regret it.