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Dia Dipasupil / Workers through Getty Photos and Paras Griffin / Stringer through Getty Photos
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Pusha T and Kendrick Lamar on the 2025 BET Awards
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landscape-medium
Key Takeaways:
- Def Jam Recordings reportedly blocked Kendrick Lamar’s verse on Clipse’s “Chains & Whips” resulting from a “Trump card” lyric.
- Clipse responded by shopping for out their contract and leaving the label.
- Pusha T says Def Jam had been censoring his lyrics since 2018, properly earlier than the Lamar collaboration.
On Monday (June 23), Clipse previewed “Chains & Whips,” a observe from their upcoming album, Let God Kind Em Out, that includes none aside from Kendrick Lamar. Common Music Group, Def Jam’s dad or mum firm, nevertheless, apparently discovered the observe was too controversial, so the duo had to purchase themselves out of their contract to launch it.
That, mixed with each Pusha T and Lamar’s historical past with Drake, led followers to imagine pictures would positively be fired. So, when Clipse performed the Compton lyricist’s verse with none apparent subliminals or name-drops, listeners understandably didn’t know what to make of it.
“For my part, [Def Jam] didn’t just like the optics,” the “Infrared” rapper informed The New York Occasions’ “Popcast” in an interview printed later that night. “…Of two Drake foes teaming up,” host Joe Coscarelli stated to complete his sentence, to which Pusha T agreed, “Proper.”
“They pinpointed a line the place the phrase ‘Trump card’ was used. It’s so silly,” the Virginia rapper went on to elucidate. “They stated that they didn’t need any downside with Trump or one thing like that.”
Although the “Trump card” bar did not seem within the snippet, followers nonetheless received to listen to Lamar stepping into: “I am not the candidate to vibe with / I do not f**ok with the kumbaya s**t / All that expertise have to be God-sent / I despatched your a** again to the cosmics.” There could also be extra to unpack, particularly if there are hidden jabs, however we’ll have to attend for the CDQ model on July 11 to seek out out.
Earlier in his chat with “Popcast,” Pusha T revealed that Def Jam had been censoring his music since 2018 — across the time “The Story Of Adidon” got here out — lengthy earlier than Clipse even submitted their Lamar collaboration. “The Lyrics Committee, from what I perceive, was purported to take your music [and] be certain that there aren’t any interpolations [or] secret samples,” he shared. “It was, for me at Def Jam, a strategy to censor my music or a manner to verify I wasn’t having any subliminal disses.”
“The telling half was once they’d get the lyrics unsuitable,” the Pusha T added. Talking particularly about Let God Kind Em Out, he shared how Lamar’s verse successfully killed Def Jam’s enthusiasm to place Clipse’s comeback album out. “We present up with the Kendrick verse, and all the things is halted. It’s halted. It’s stated that it’ll not be put out…They might not converse through e mail.”