In a brand new interview with Frazier Tharpe, for GQ, Pusha T mentioned that he departed his longtime label residence, Def Jam Recordings, over the corporate’s obvious reluctance to launch a brand new Clipse track that includes a visitor verse from Kendrick Lamar. “They wished me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which after all I used to be by no means doing,” he claimed. “After which they wished me to take the file off.” Finally, the events agreed to go their separate methods, in response to Pusha T, and Clipse’s new comeback album, Let God Sort Em Out, is being launched in partnership with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
Pusha T’s longtime supervisor, Steven Victor, additionally mentioned the rapper’s Def Jam departure in a brand new interview with Billboard. “Yeah, I don’t know what their concern is,” Victor mentioned. “However they have been like, ‘There’s a line right here; we predict it’s controversial; [Kendrick] wants to alter it, or we’re not placing it out.’ We’re not going to ask him to alter the verse. You guys are fallacious. Cease taking a look at this this fashion. None of this makes any sense.”
In line with Victor, Pusha T “had like three albums left” on his take care of Def Jam. As well as, he additionally claimed that the musician “needed to pay seven figures to get out of the deal.”
Representatives for Def Jam Recordings and its dad or mum firm, Universal Music Group (UMG), didn’t reply to Pitchfork’s requests for remark.
Common Music Group is facing active litigation from Drake, who claims that UMG “waged an unrelenting marketing campaign” to advertise Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” the hit diss observe that Drake believes is defamatory. Each Drake and Lamar additionally launch music by way of UMG-owned labels, Republic Information and Interscope Information, respectively.
Labels owned by UMG launched or co-released most of the songs in the Lamar-Drake feud of 2024. For Lamar, these formally sanctioned tracks have been: “Like That,” “Euphoria,” “Meet the Grahams,” and “Not Like Us.” On Drake’s facet of issues, he launched “Push Ups” and “Family Matters” in partnership with Republic.
Years earlier than the Kendrick Lamar and Drake imbroglio, Pusha T shared his personal vicious diss observe in opposition to the Canadian hip-hop celebrity. Notably, Pusha T didn’t undergo his label to drop “The Story of Adidon,” as a substitute posting it on SoundCloud. Talking with Billboard, Steven Victor mentioned that Pusha T shared his track independently, partly, “to keep away from” objections from Def Jam and UMG.
The brand new Clipse track that includes Kendrick Lamar is named “Chains & Whips,” and it performed throughout certainly one of Pharrell Williams’ runway exhibits for Louis Vuitton. It’s at present unclear if the track (with or and not using a Kendrick Lamar verse) will seem on Clipse’s Let God Kind Em Out, which will get launched on July 11.
