Haiku Reviews: Pusha T’s “Wrath of Caine”

Slava P found out what happened to that Boy George cassette. What happened to Terrence Thornton? The braided half of the former “under-appreciated” (his words) pairing The Clipse has abandoned...
By    February 4, 2013

Slava P found out what happened to that Boy George cassette.

What happened to Terrence Thornton? The braided half of the former “under-appreciated” (his words) pairing The Clipse has abandoned his daily rituals of working the Virginia corners and slinging cocaine in favor of flights to Hawaii with Kanye and building on his #menswear collection. But you wouldn’t know it by listening to his raps. Wrath of Caine is Pusha T’s attempt at getting our attention before he releases his long-time-coming debut, My Name Is My Name, but if his first solo album will be anything like what’s presented on Caine, I already miss No Malice.

Once you look past the glossy veneer of sing-along guest features, “once upon a time” coke tales and grating Jamaican accents, what you’re left with is a hollow attempt at reworking a tired drug dealer cliche. At best, Pusha T has become a Young Jeezy clone who is allowed to make songs with members of MMG, down to his trademark “talent” of ending three separate bars with the same word and trying to play it off as clever.

The best parts of Wrath Of Caine don’t actually involve Pusha at all. After 36 minutes, the biggest takeaways for me were Kevin Gates and his Future impression; French Montana and his straight ignorance; Rozay talking about soft loafers and organic herbs, and Ab-Liva coming out of nowhere to steal the show. Even “Revolution” was only listenable because it made you nostalgic about better days when Pusha worked hand-in-hand with The Neptunes instead of being an auditory hypebeast. Thank God (or, in his eyes, thank Pusha) that Wale was put on a track so it wasn’t a complete bukkake (get it? Because everyone came hard).

Intro
Jamaica accents,
and online porn confessions
oh, and coke stories

Millions feat. Rick Ross
Haunting pianos
and pure, raw introspection.
Plus, Ross fabricates

Doesn’t Matter feat. French Montana
If your IRA
isn’t maxed the fuck out, French
doesn’t care for you.

Blocka
One up on T James:
put diamonds on everything.
Including your gun.

Revolution
Throwback to talent
while describing your fall from
grace to cool patterns

Road Runner feat. Troy Ave
Trafficking music
to incriminate you for
your next traffic stop.

Only You Can Tell It feat. Wale
The solitary
example of how to own
a song on your tape

Trust You feat. Kevin Gates
Flaunt your buzz knowledge
of new artists. Also flaunt
designers you know

Take My Life feat. Andrea Martin
Great guitar riffs with
enjoyable lyrics that
name drop Paris shops

Re-Up Gang Motivation feat. Ab-Liva
Back from the dead to
impress the old Clipse fans and
introduce new ones

I Am Forgiven
Asking repentance
for actions you have taken
to be Ye’s cronie

Download:
ZIP: Pusha T – “Wrath of Caine (Left-Click)

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