Pusha T is a Virginia rapper who's been an master lyricist longer than Gen Z has been breathing. If there’s one thing that defines the career of Pusha T it’s elite performance, at an elite level, but the second is the importance of making the right choices at the right time. Unlike most rappers Push has only gotten better with time, his work has only gotten more popular, and he reached his peak of cultural relevance at the age of forty-one, an age where most rappers are consigned to VladTV or a trial date for tax evasion.
Once Upon a Time in Virginia
Pusha T’s career began as part of a duo with his brother Malice. Together they formed Clipse, at the very least a top ten hip-hop duo of all time. Their trade was coke rap. Dense, jargon-rich but lyrically adroit stories and anecdotes and embellishments about the ins and outs and byproducts of selling cocaine to the cocaine-using community. While a man who deals cocaine is always one pistol away from being a gangster, coke rap is not strictly gangster rap. Violence, affiliation and turf are merely byproducts of the lifestyle afforded the successful cocaine dealer. Coke rap is about this lifestyle. It’s like a sequence of two to five-minute montages from the successful portion of Scarface, I bought this, I banged that, I weighed this and I owe it all to cocaine. Listen to 50 Cent’s ‘What Up Gangsta’ and Push’s ‘If You Know You Know’ and see if you can play spot the difference.
Both Push and Malice had served cocaine for years prior their rap career, and always speak of the trade as if they were the ones who actually did it, whereas all these other rappers merely said they did. Together they befriended a talented marsupial called Pharrell Williams, the first of many excellent choices in Pusha T’s career. Clipse recorded what should have been their debut album, 1999’s Exclusive Audio Footage, over Pharrell’s production. Elektra Records wasn’t feeling it, and no one was feeling the excessively busy soul-sampling lead single ‘The Funeral,’ so the album was shelved. Their relationship with Pharrell bore fruit, however, as in 2002 they signed with Arista Records via Pharrell’s Star Trak imprint and released their classic debut Lord Willin’.
Lord Willin’ is a great album, stacked front to back with cold-blooded bars, bouncy, meticulous Pharrell beats, well-implemented soul samples, a little G-Funk inflection, and okay hooks. The album’s obvious quality was amplified by the commercial success of the lead single ‘Gridin’.’ The story goes that after Pharrell made the beat, a barrage of stacked drums and what sounds like a xylophone melody, he gave Pusha and Malice fifteen minutes to get to the studio and record a hit, otherwise he was giving the beat to Jay Z. Pusha, of course, made the correct choice.
‘Grindin’’ rose to number thirty on the charts and spawned a remix with NORE, the worst rapper of all time Birdman, and a very Lil Wayne. It’s odd to think of a time when Pusha and Wayne were cool because within the year a two-decade feud between the two would commence. It was supposedly Birdman, Wayne’s adopted father (among other, less-pleasant, things), who actually commenced the feud, refusing to pay The Neptunes (Pharrell’s production moniker when working with Chad Hugo) for work they did on a song Clipse featured on. This may seem a digression, but it’s important, and, holistically, another instance of Pusha T making the right choice.
Lord Willin’ went gold, a fine effort for an understated debut out of Virginia in an era of Slim Shady, Hov, Nelly and Luda all jostling to be bigger, louder, brasher, and with the looming specter of 50 Cent approaching like a laser-guided behemoth. However, things weren’t looking great for Clipse. Arista Records was absorbed by Jive Records as Sony merged with BMG. Pharrell’s Star Trak imprint went to Interscope, while Clipse ended up stuck on Jive. It’s a process of consolidation of capital you might remember from making our world a living hell. The jive turkeys at Jive Records didn’t much care for Clipse and this began a protracted contractual pile of horseshit. Eventually, and without compromising on quality, Clipse released Hell Hath No Fury.
Everything that was good about Lord Willin’ is great about Hell Hath No Fury. Push is growing into his exacting, mid-paced flow, and Malice is looking back with such potent regret through such vivid imagery that you can’t help but wish the man would be a little easier on himself. The instrumental palette, courtesy of Pharrell once again, is more expansive than Lord Willin’, with accordions and Arabic-sounding horns seamlessly integrating with Pharrell’s Whack-a-Mole walls of drums. The best track is ‘Keys Open Doors’ a verse a piece from Push and Malice extol the benefits of the drug trades without a bad bar between them, over a heavenly looping vocal sample and three different kinds of percussion. There’s also a hook.
Despite setting off a period of critical acclaim that persists to this day, Hell Hath No Fury wasn’t as successful as Lord Willin’ and the duo’s follow-up Till the Casket Drops continued this trend. Clipse went on hiatus. Malice, who had long seemed the more traumatised by their experiences, found God, changed his name to No Malice, wrote a book and released the solo album Hear Ye Him, which was heard by neither he nor him. Meanwhile, Pusha was out in the cold, without a record deal, an album, or his brother. This was a crucial moment in Pusha T’s career, where he could emerge as a solo artist, or become considered to the bin of washed-up whatever-happened-to 2000s rappers like J-Kwon.
In the Company of Mania
Kanye West is a real man that exists, and in 2010 he was also in search of a career second wind. His disastrous appearance at the VMAs coupled with his divisive electro-synth-pop album 808s and Heartbreak had soured the public’s and hip-hop’s perceptions of West for what would surely be the last time. Kanye had devised a comeback, a grand opus about the life and times of a maniac, and he’d need some help. Push was one of many (many) artists recruited to assist in the writing and production of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. A three-day assignment turned into a month, an iconic feature on Kanye’s ‘Runaway,’ and eventually signing with Kanye West’s GOOD Music. Dark Fantasy would completely resuscitate Kanye’s career, and Push was now camping with one of the most influential and gifted musical acts ever recorded.
More Information on Kanye West
Pusha’s first EP released on GOOD was not great. Aside from the Tyler the Creator assisted ‘Trouble on My Mind’ which slow-burned its way to a 100 million streams over a decade, nothing on Fear of God II stuck, and half the beats sounded dated then. The key takeaway from the album was the evolution of Push’s delivery, which had become slower and more precise than ever, each letter in each word enunciated so clearly you could hear the serifs, and stamped onto the beat one-by-one like branding iron on a prize bull. The debut album was still to come, so Push had time to refine and consider his sound.
In 2013 Pusha T released a stray single, ‘Exodus 23:1.’ Far from joining his brother in the service of Christ, ‘Exodus’ was a diss track. No names were mentioned, but it was as subtle as local theatre. Birdman, Wayne and a rising protege of his called Drake were squarely in his sights. Pusha’s thesis was the poor deal Birdman offered Wayne and Drake, and the commensurate work they’d have to do to make any money, evidencing the one-sided love Wayne had for Birdman. Wayne would respond with the horrible ‘Ghoulish,’ and the beef would return to embers for the time being.
Pusha’s debut album My Name is My Name would drop the same year. A massive step up from Fear of God, My Name featured extensive Kanye production, Pusha’s flow now locked into its sniper rifle precision, his bars up to another level and two iconic tracks. The first, ‘Numbers on the Boards,’ is a stunning display of lyricism as intricate and detailed as a Chinese puzzle box, where there are new things to discover every time you listen. The second is ‘Nosetalgia,’ a blazing collab with Kendrick Lamar over one of the best beats Kanye has ever made. Push and Kendrick each deliver flawless verses over Kanye’s sunburned guitar and Latin-inflected drums. People still debate who had the better verse of the two. My Name is My Name has received some criticism from listeners for a rocky middle section. Personally, two or three weak tracks isn’t enough to detract what is an excellent rap record. Push kept ‘Pain’ with Future on the hook off the radio, a luxury available to basically no one.
Upright as a solo artist, Pusha’s next album King Push - The Darkest Before The Dawn: The Prelude has a terrible title but a fantastically cohesive sound. Departing from the warmer tones typical to his and Clipse’s music, King Push is a chilly, ethereal listen, stacked with A-List features and a range of new producers. Along the way Kanye would appoint Pusha-T as the president of GOOD Music, and hand him a quarter million dollar salary as compensation. Push would retreat from the spotlight after this, popping up occasionally to deliver the all-time Jay-Z collaboration ‘Drug Dealers Anonymous,’ and to cash a check on a horrible Linkin Park song. The question remained, what exactly was King Push a prelude to?
I Pray for My Enemies
Supposedly, it was a prelude to an album called King Push, but that album never materialised. Instead, we got Daytona, a seven-track masterpiece produced solely by Kanye as part of his Wyoming Sessions. Daytona is a fat-free, back-to-basics, hip-hop record made up of two things: spectacular rapping, and spectacular beats. From start to finish Push doesn’t waste a single bar, delivering back-to-back-to-back-to-back verses that few rappers, ever, have a chance of matching. Kanye kills it on production. The lead single, ‘If You Know You Know,’ with its impenetrable itinerary of drug dealer slang, has to go down as one of the best rap album openers, ever, and the second track ‘The Games We Play,’ features Push’s best hook, and is even better than the first track. Both songs went Gold, handing Push his first solo certifications.
One track, however, caused a bit of a scuffle. The closer, ‘Infrared,’ is another diss towards Birdman, Wayne and Drake. Names are mentioned this time. Drake is called into question for using ghostwriters, his success is attributed to his hooks, not his rapping. Wayne is once again ridiculed for remaining trapped under Birdman’s thumb in a terrible contract. In another universe, this is just another song where Push takes shots at the Birdman/Wayne/Drake world, receives a few shots back, and life continues on as normal. This… is not what happened.
Drake hopped on a luxurious beat from Boi-1da and recorded ‘Duppy Freestyle.’ Drake’s diss track, while well performed, ultimately amounted to Drake saying Push didn’t sell as many drugs as he said he did and is quite a nice guy in real life. The rest was directed at Kanye, another entry in the pointless beef between Drake and Kanye that was never interesting to begin with. Drake also mentioned Pusha T’s fiance Virginia in passing, a choice motivated by stupidity. Still, ‘Duppy Freestyle’ was widely seen as a pretty good diss, and everyone waited to see what Push would say in response.
Pusha T resolved to disembowel Drake. Set to Jay-Z’s ‘Story of OJ’ beat, Pusha released ‘The Story of Adidon.’ Displeased that Drake mentioned Virginia in his song, Push revealed that, despite being able to have any woman he wanted, Drake had unprotected sex with a pornstar producing a child. Pusha went on to accuse Aubrey Drake Graham of being a deadbeat dad, of not being present in the kid’s life, thus perpetuating the cycle of absentee fathers that began with his own father Dennis Graham. As punishment for wasting Push’s time by dedicating half his diss to Kanye, Push closed out the track by making fun of Drake’s best friend and producer Noah ‘40’ Shebib’s slow deterioration from MS. Drake did not respond, and has become an active part of his son’s life.
Complex Magazine named Pusha T ‘The Best Rapper Alive’ for 2018, on the strength of Daytona and the Drake diss, with ‘The Story of Adidon’ itself being listed as one of the best songs of 2018 by multiple publications. Daytona was nominated for Rap Album of the Year at the Grammys, losing to Cardi B. Pusha T and Virginia would marry, and his first son, Nigel, would be born in 2020.
Pusha T’s most recent album was It’s Almost Dry, which sees past and present Pusha T collide across a single album. With production evenly split between Kanye West and Pharrell, again delivers a top-tier hip-hop album, with features from Jay-Z, Kanye, Kid Cudi, Lil Uzi, Pharrell and others. But it is the closing track that has the most impactful guest appearance. ‘I Pray for You’ sees the return of Clipse. Now, Clipse had returned earlier for Kanye’s Jesus is King, but this time they returned on a good album. Shedding the No from his name Malice offers a god-fearing and thunderous verse to close out the album, as good as anything he’s ever spat before. He condemns his past as a dealer, prods his brother’s pride, appeals to his better nature, and tells all of us to repent. Push meanwhile, keeps doing his thing the way he always does. Why would he change? He’s barely put a foot wrong in twenty years.
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