Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse

My newfound love of hip-hop, described at length throughout the 2024 Top 31 (culminating in Kendrick Lamar’s #1 album, _GNX),_ has carried through into 2025. As I’m new(ish) to the genre, I didn’t have a connection to the duo at #17 prior to 2025, despite them having been making music together and individually for over thirty years. Brothers Gene and Terrence Thornton, better known by their stage names Malice and Pusha T, are collectively known as Clipse. Between them, they have ten studio albums (and countless guest appearances), but Let God Sort Em Out is only their fourth album together, and their first in sixteen years.

It took the brothers a bit to hit their stride. Malice, the older of the two (currently 53) started rapping in junior high. In 1990, he was introduced to Pharrell Williams by mutual friends. He went into the Army after high school in 1991, and then tagged back up with Pharrell once his stint was done. Pusha, still in high school (now 48), began tagging along with his big brother into the studio. They recorded their first song together in the mid 90s, and Pharrell pulled the strings to get the duo signed to Elektra records in 1996. Their first full album together, Exclusive Audio Footage, produced by Pharrell and his business partner Chad Hugo under their production name The Neptunes, was slated to be released three years later. Due to poor marketing and even worse reception for the lead single, “The Funeral,” the album was shelved and the duo were dropped by the label in 1999.

Pharrell, continuing to believe in the brothers, signed them again in 2001, this time to his new Star Trak imprint at Arista Records. In 2002, their first official album, Lord Willin’ was released, along with what has become their most famous song, “Grindin’,” which of course features Pharrell as well. (The video is worth checking out just for how silly Pharrell is and how serious the young Thornton brothers are.)

Controversy continued to follow the duo around. While they recorded material for their follow-up album, Star Trak moved onto Interscope Records, leaving Clipse stuck in their contract with Jive Records, which had recently merged with the rappers’ label. While Jive focused on its non-rap acts, Clipse were left in the lurch, finishing the recording of Hell Hath No Fury but having no means to release it. They ended up suing Jive, and eventually reaching an agreement in 2006. The sophomore album, also produced by Pharrell, reached mass acclaim for songs like “Mr. Me Too” and “Wamp Wamp (What It Do).” In 2007, the band moved over to Columbia records and began working on their third album, working with Diddy’s production team The Hitmen over Pharrell. Released in 2009, Til The Casket Drops did not fare as well as their previous two records.

A year later, the brothers disbanded to pursue solo careers. Pusha signed with Kanye’s GOOD Music label with whom he released four well-received albums. He succeeded West as the president of GOOD in 2015, and stuck with the label until until the end of 2022, eventually cutting ties with West after his antisemitic and pro-race remarks. Malice found god, wrote a memoir, and announced a name change to No Malice. He released two albums to mixed acclaim – people still praised him for his lyrics, but the lack of Pharrell production hurt him musically.

Between the split in 2010 and their eventual reunion as Clipse in 2024, the brothers made limited appearances together. They featured on each others album’s and even rapped together as Clipse on Kanye’s 2019 song “Use This Gospel” and on DJ Nico’s track “Punch Bowl,” which was produced by The Neptunes. The duo started to hype their new Clipse material that would eventually become Let God Sort Em Out in 2024, hyping up the all-Pharrell production and key guest appearances from artists like Nas and John Legend. They had signed to Def Jam Records at the end of 2024, and were prepared to release the album in early 2025. Due to continued controversy, including issues related to Pusha T’s own feud with Drake back in 2018, the album was held back and the brothers were dropped by Def Jam. The duo finally self-released the album in July 2025.

Whew.

And we’re all the better for it. The album is wall-to-wall fantastic, and jam-packed with great Pharrell production and key guest stars:

“P.O.V.” (featured above), has Tyler, the Creator (#25 this year, #12 last year)
“Fico” has Stove God Cooks
“The Birds Don’t Sing” has John Legend (#17 in 2017) and Voices of Fire – in spite of the Legend chorus, this is quite a moving song, having both brothers recount their last conversations with their mother and father, who recently passed within four months of each other
“Chains and Whips” features Top 31 fave Kendrick Lamar (#1 last year, #16 in 2022, #21 in 2018, #22 in 2017, and #29 in 2015)

They’ve released one other video from the album, So Be It,” which has no guest star but has an amazingly catchy sampled hook created by Pharrell. While you’re at it, check out their tiny desk concert from July. I love that we live in a world that a curse-laden set by two middle-aged brothers can still make waves on NPR. Putting a capper on the year, Clipse appeared on JID’s God Does Like Ugly, on the song “Community.”

With a wealth of music under their belts, Clipse have proven that you can keep doing what you do and remain at the top of your game. My love of this new album proves you don’t need to listen to their earlier work to enjoy the current. The brothers have a flow unlike most rappers out there, and I can’t recommend this album enough.

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DON'T TAP THE GLASS by Tyler, The Creator

Tyler, The Creator, whose real name is Tyler Okonma, was likely the hardest working creator in the world in 2025¹. From February through September he played 96 arena shows in support of his phenomenal 2024 album CHROMAKOPIA (#12 last year) – a performance that had Tyler performing for nearly two hours solo on stage in front of audiences ranting from 12,000 to 75,000 people. During a break between one of the four 2025 legs of the tour (the fifth leg will be completed through March, 2026), he found the time to write, produce, record, and release the phenomenal DON’T TAP THE GLASS, his ninth studio album. As if that weren’t enough, towards the end of the year Okonma made his acting debut, alongside Timothée Chalamet, in Josh Safdie’s amazing period ping pong film Marty Supreme.

GLASS is a short 29 minutes long, but packed end-to-end with greatness, starting with the first song. “Big Poe,” written together with Pharrell Williams (who is also featured on the song as his alias Sk8brd – your guess is as good as mine as to what it means to be a cowriter as well as be featured on the song as one’s alias.) The song evokes LL Cool J of the early 90s, and heavily samples the song “Roked” from the Shye Ben Tzur / Johnny Greenwood / Rajasthan Express collaboration Junun (#10 in 2016).

The single “Sugar on My Tongue” (featured in the video above) is an electro hip hop groove at a fast 126 bpm that forces you to move no matter where you are. Okonma recently released a remix of the song that goes even harder: “Sugar on My Tongue (Freak Mix).” “Sucka Free,” whose chorus has the rapper catchily singing “I’m that guy, tryin’ to get my paper baby,” interpolates the freestyle rap he performed on top of Kendrick Lamar’s “Hey Now” (from last year’s #1 album, GNX) that Okonma released at the end of 2024. The fantastic video for “Stop Playing with Me” features LeBron James and the Clipse brothers, Pusha T and Malice, a clear tie back to Tyler’s recent appearance in the Clipse song “P.O.V.,” featured on their 2025 comeback album Let God Sort Em Out.

But wait, there’s more to Tyler, The Creator’s packed-to-the-gills 2025: he also released a new non-album single, on Christmas Day (the same day that Marty Supreme came out), called “Sag Harbor.” Like GLASS, it is well worth your time to check it out.

The entirety of DON’T TAP THE GLASS, along with this new song, all fit a “dance” motif, an intentional move by Tyler. The day the album came out, Okonma tweeted “more body movement,” paired with a manifesto for the album which ended with “This album was not made for sitting still, dancing driving running any type of movement is recommended to maybe understand the spirit of it. Only at at full volume.”

I’ve loved everything Tyler has made over the past few years, despite only really starting to pay attention to him when CHROMAKOPIA came out in 2024. I cannot wait to hear / see / feel what he does next.

^{1. Apple thinks so, too: in November 2025, Tyler, The Creator was announced as Apple Music’s Artist of the Year.↩}

#17 on the 2025 Bacon Top 31 — Clipse

#25 on the 2025 Bacon Top 31 — Tyler, The Creator