Pusha T is opening up about the unconventional way he got out of his contract with Def Jam.
Source: Prince Williams / Astrida Valigorsky
As Pusha T and No Malice prepare to drop their latest album under their collective Clipse, fans are finally getting a glimpse into one of the reasons the project took so long.
The pair announced last week that Let God Sort ‘Em Out, their first album in 15 years, will arrive on July 11th. Def Jam–who the duo had signed with last year for the project–was curiously left out of the press release completely, with distribution and marketing instead being attributed to JAY-Z’s Roc Nation. Now, Pusha T is opening up about what really happened behind the scenes.
In a new interview with GQ, the Virginia native claimed Clipse’s relationship with Def Jam took a hit due to Kendrick Lamar’s verse on their song, “Chains & Whips.”
Def Jam’s parent company, Universal Music Group, is also home to Drake (OVO Sound/Republic Records) and Lamar (pgLang/Interscope Records). Due to the highly publicized feud between Drake and Lamar, Pusha T said the label didn’t love the idea of putting Drake’s biggest enemies on a song together–especially after the Canadian rapper’s lawsuit against UMG.
As for Pusha T’s beef with Drake, he famously outed Drake for having a “secret” son in 2018 during their own rap beef.
“They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing,” he revealed to GQ. “And then they wanted me to take the record off. And so, after a month of not doing it, Steve Gawley, the lawyer over there was like, ‘We’ll just drop the Clipse.’ But that can’t work because I’m still there [solo]. But [if] you let us all go… ”
In the end, Def Jam decided to release Clipse and drop Pusha T as a solo artist, according to Pusha, which allowed Clipse to search for another home. This back and forth ended up forcing Clipse to push back the album’s release date, which was originally supposed to drop in 2024. Regardless of the wait, Pusha T insists the entire process was worth it, saying: “It felt good to even see how other labels were buying for the project.”
Earlier this year, Drake filed an 81-page federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging UMG “approved, published and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Universal Music Group has denied all of Drake’s allegations, insisting the lawsuit is “frivolous,” “reckless” and “misguided.” The company has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that the rapper’s claims are an attempt to save his reputation after losing his feud with Lamar.
It should come as no surprise that Pusha T isn’t a fan of censorship, also revealing to GQ that he went through similar pushback with Def Jam over his unreleased verses on Rick Ross’ “Maybach Music VI” and Pop’s Smoke’s posthumously released track “Paranoia” following his Drake diss, “Story of Adidon.”
“If [Drake’s] adamant to have a lawsuit, it’s only because he knows all the things that they did to suppress everything that was happening around ‘Adidon’ and the verses and the records and things that were happening back then,” he said. “I don’t rate him no more. The suing thing is bigger than some rap s**t. I just don’t rate you. Damn, it’s like it just kind of cheapens the art of it once we gotta have real questions about suing and litigation. Like, what? For this?”
Still, the rapper insists he doesn’t feel the need to reignite his beef with Drake anytime soon.
“I think after everything that had been done, I don’t think there was ever anything subliminal to be said ever again in life,” Pusha explained. “Not only just musically, like bro, I actually was in Canada. I actually had a show and made it home. So, I can’t pay attention to none of that. I did the dance for real, not to come back and tiptoe around anything.”
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