Clipse

The Clipse are back with a jittery collage of wealth porn and crack synonyms. Emcees Pusha-T and Malice set out to rescue rap from those "dunce cappin' and cazooin'." You know, the "penny ante n*gg*z" and "Jo-Jo dancers" who line up round the block as our boys shuffle "snow" and "diet coke." Throughout Hell Hath No Fury, the mundane is made obscene, and words are twisted to meet the group's glistening white worldview. As they repeatedly remind us: "Keys open doors." Think about that while you "getcha nostrils clear."

The new Clipse album sounds a hell of a lot like the last one. Neither rapper Pusha T nor
Malice exhibit much personal or artistic growth -- or star power, for that matter. All the
songs are about selling cocaine and driving sports cars, with no R&B divas anywhere in sight
to give listeners a break. So why is it one of the best hip-hop albums of the year? For one,
nobody gets the beats -- dry, hard and evil -- that Clipse get from Pharrell William... More >