Videos by According2HipHop
This week, the legendary duo gave a sneak peek at their upcoming track “Chains & Whips,” featuring a blistering, previously unheard verse from Kendrick Lamar. The song is set to appear on Clipse’s upcoming album Let God Sort Em Out, and based on early reactions, it’s already shaping up to be one of the most controversial moments of their return.
In a rooftop video posted to Instagram by Clipse and Pharrell, the track’s hook rings out while Kendrick unloads lines like:
“Therapy showed me how to open up / It also showed me I don’t give a f—k”
“I’m not the candidate to vibe with / I don’t f—k with the Kumbaya s—t”
No surprise—his verse instantly caught fire online before being deleted on all platforms. But behind the scenes, it sparked even more chaos.
In a GQ interview last month, Pusha T detailed how the Lamar feature caused serious friction with Def Jam, with execs reportedly pressuring Clipse to either censor the verse or cut it entirely. “They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing,” Pusha told the magazine. “Then they wanted me to take the record off. And so, after a month of not doing it, [Def Jam’s] Steve Gawley was like, ‘We’ll just drop the Clipse.’”
With Kendrick and Pusha both sitting high atop Drake’s enemies list—and with Drake currently suing UMG in part over Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” jabs—Def Jam allegedly wasn’t trying to host that kind of heat. The optics of the two teaming up again in the middle of that lawsuit apparently had the higher-ups shook.
But if the industry is panicking, the fans are doing the opposite. “Chains & Whips” feels like a shot of adrenaline straight to the arm of hip-hop—two of the most calculated spitters in the game doubling down on their legacies, unfiltered and unbothered.
The message is clear: Clipse is back, Kendrick is still on demon time, and nobody’s playing it safe.
