LA Weekly: The Clipse are Rap’s Derek Zoolander
Don’t get me wrong, Pusha T and Malice are very good rappers. And I certainly don’t blame them for not wanting to be lumped into “your coke-rap genre.” Truth be told, they can rap rings around the likes of Young Jeezy and Rick Ross (though be fair, both of those heavyset clowns rap about as well as they run. Too bad Rae already named an album Immobilarity). But really, the blogosphere fellation of the Clipse that has occurred over the last two years is downright embarrassing. These guys write the same song over and over. Hell Hath No Fury and We Got It 4 Cheap Vol. 3 are the Blue Steel and Le Tigre of rap records. It’s the same look. They might be good rappers but they’re very poor artists. To quote Jacobim Mugatu: I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. The full review is in the LA Weekly. Follow the link below. It’s in the computer.
LA Weekly: We Got It 4 Cheap Vol. 3 Review (Scroll Down)
Download:
ZIP: The Clipse-”We Got it 4 Cheap Vol. 3 Mixtape (Left-Click)
February 25th, 2008 at 5:33 am
I always get a warm feeling when you trash The Clipse. Like I’m not alone in the world in thinking the duo epitomizes the phrase “one-trick pony.”
I don’t expect you to make too many friends off that write-up, but I got love for ya, Weiss. Or, in the immortal words of GZA, “I gotcha back but ‘cha best ‘ta watch ya front.”
February 25th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Nice, checking now. Congrats on the Spine Magazine link for your Bone Thugs concert review too!
February 25th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I dunno, dude. They talk about a lot more than just coke. Let’s see… there’s keys, snow, powder, bricks, scales, weight… That’s like six different things right there!
February 25th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Hater.
February 25th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I dunno - I think a lot of people are feeling you on this one. Does anyone really dispute that they’ve been making the same album for 5 years? but these dudes know what’s up - “I’m not part of your coke-rap genre” is like a Satanist telling you he’s against the Church and affirming it in doing so.
February 25th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Sure, “one-trick pony” could sum them up nicely, just like most every other very good rapper out there mainstream or otherwise. It’s always the same look.
The thing is most people (including myself) only got on board with Vol. 2 so it’s not like they’ve been riding the one trick pony all that long. People will get bored eventually if Clipse don’t do something different.
I have Vol. 3 on my hard drive, just haven’t got around to listening to it yet.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Come on! First, you can’t blame them for the music contained in their mixtapes. Mixtapes are not meant to be brilliant. They are meant to be just a taste of what an artist is capable of. They are released to remind us the artist is still alive.
I only judge an artist by his albums and concerts. If he releases a good mixtape, that’s ok, but you can’t judge him because of a repetitive mixtape.
Weren’t you saying bloggers underrated last Ghostface’s album because it was more of the same? I remember you said you can’t blame Rembrandt for only painting Dutch farmers and I agreed with you. The same with Clipse. So far, they have released two albums with excellent rhymes and dope and innovative beats. Of course they are always talking about the same, but they’re still great.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:56 am
If the Clipse had narratives I wouldn’t care. Ghost spins narratives with clear story arcs: a beginning, a middle and an end. All Clipse can do is kick bad puns about slanging coke. There’s a huge difference between something like “Yolanda’s House” which is providing a fresh spin on a tired trope, versus something like “Emotionless” which is just bad pun after bad pun after bad pun.
And no, I wouldn’t judge them based on their mixtape if it hadn’t been practically identical to their last album. There’s a stark difference between writing songs with a thematic similarity versus sitting in your room trying to think up synonyms for blow (on the other hand, if this was all rap was about, I’d give them 5 mics, no contest).
Honestly, would it kill them to write 1 song that wasn’t about dealing coke? They haven’t done that in four years. And that’s ridiculous.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:06 am
We’ll see, maybe that one with Joss Stone they’ve been recording lately lol.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Odds of them running trains on J Stone: 84 percent.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
at least they know that that’s all they rap about! they talk about it all the time
February 27th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Thank you, Jeff. We needed this.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Man.
You make me laugh.
Even when my future ex-husband doesn’t.
NICE.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I ahve to admit, Malice’s opening words in “Show You How to Hustle” were pretty funny — “If all I talk about is coke, let that tell you somethin’ …”
But yeah, I’d definitely love to see more diversity from these guys. If only they could put the same effort at creating coke puns towards other topics!
March 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Dude, that’s a little harsh. How many different songs did N.W.A. do? Or Dwight Yoakam, for that matter? The latest Cheap ain’t the best, but it’s still hot. Still better than most major label tripe.