This is culturally inappropriate.
Wow. I am so impressed. This is quite an astonishing achievement after all this time. It’s actually really refreshing and – dare I say it? – inspirational for someone so long in the game still able to surprise us. The fact that I – Alexander Franchise-Palmer – can still highly rate this album despite the very public feuds that Pusha T and I have had in the past, is an incredible show of maturity and commitment to my unbiased reporting. Maybe there’s still hope left for us all?
And by showing how I’m actually the bigger man and appreciating how some things in life are some important than silly little rap beefs (which Pusha’s and mine most definitely was), this all kind of means that I won the feud, doesn’t it?
So, erm, yeah, suck it, Pusha T, choke on my hairy balls.
Since I have extraordinarily gracefully and with God-like compassion put that whole childish business to bed, I can simply appreciate without prejudice how much of a fucking banger the first Clipse album in 16 years is.
Firstly, huge props for just how much of an actual, consistent and coherent album this is. In an era when many of their peers are releasing 30 track Spotify juicers recorded over 23 seperate sessions with 121 different producers, ‘Let God…’ is an extraordinarily tight 13 tracks and 41 minutes of harmonious and yet complimentary elite level hip-hop. And the entire thing is produced by – get this – Pharrell Williams!! It’s like a 2006 fantasy camp!! Nas and John Legend? Of course! We want the camp to feel as authentic as possible!
I love this album so much that I’m willing to overlook what an absolute fucking tool Pharrell Williams is. Just last month, that dense piece of rotting mutton claimed that supporting any politics is bad, actually, because it just… sows division? He then went on a little anti-DEI rant to add to his unbelievably thick assertion that fighting against fascism is worse than fascism. Because you might upset people, I guess. If a five year old expressed that opinion, I would worry that their brain was intellectually stunted. Seriously, I’d subject that little shit to so many tests for learning developments. Ah, but don’t worry, when the dimwit was awarded shoe of the year (what fucking world do these people live in?) last week he decided to make his position more clear, thank God:
Sound bite this. Since most people don’t like to read or do research anymore, sound bite this. God is the greatest. Sound bite this. I’m from Virginia. Sound bite this. You don’t know what I know. You ain’t seen what I saw. No, you ain’t been where I go. I’m from the mud. As a child, nobody’s been evicted more times than me. Lights turned off, water turned off, and at times, had to pump the water… I’m proletariat,” he said. “In fact, I’m lumpenproletariat. Sound bite this. I had to stay on my feet. Sound bite this. But I could never walk in the shoes of my parents, parents, parents, etc, all they had to endure while staying on their feet
Pharrell at the (sigh) 2025 Footwear News Achievement Awards
Using the fact that you grew up in poverty to justify your ignorance of class politics is like justifying how you don’t know Spanish by pointing to the fact you lived in Colombia for 20 years. You’re just lamp shading your own stupidity! Although I will through my hands up and admit his Marxist understandings, as a lumpenproletariat is someone on the margins of society who does not have a clear role in the Capitalist mode of production, and is unfortunately often susceptible to reactionary and counter-revolutionary forces (“DEI is woke nonsense! Fine people on both sides!”). Marx declared that this “passively rotting mass” could be dangerous, but Chairman Mao believed that this class could still be revolutionary with the correct guidance, so there’s hope for Pharrell yet.
So, yeah, like I say, despite all that…
‘Let God…’ is just an absolute fucking blast. The beats are crisp and concise – which is extra impressive when you consider that Pharrell isn’t intelligent enough to tie his own shoelaces – but also respectfully modest enough to appreciate how they’re not the real stars here.
Because Pusha T and Malice are on fucking fire on this record. They’re hilariously boastful; they chronicle their previous lifestyles as well as they’ve ever done before; they wittily put down rival after rival (at least eight lines are aimed directly at me, but as previously explained I’m the better man); and many songs are just downright emotionally devastating. The Birds Don’t Sing, where the two express the raw emotion of their respective parents death, is an absolutely gorgeous piece of writing:
Shared you with my friends, the Pops they never had
You lived for our fishin’ trips, damn, I had a dad
Mine taught discipline, mine taught structure
Mine didn’t mind when he had to pull a double
Mine worked overtime, smiled through the struggle
‘Cause mine wouldn’t let us feel what he had to suffer
See, mine made sure he had every base covered
So imagine his pain findin’ base in the cupboardMalice
Remember how I was flabbergasted how Nicky Wire’s wet turd of a solo album somehow took a whole ten years to put together? Well, ‘Let Got…’ sounds like Pusha T and Malice spent every available second of the past 16 years crafting some of these verses, and it at the very least sounds like the wait since their 2019 reunion was justified to craft a record this pristine.
I perhaps don’t love it as much as others – I’d say that, off the top of my head, there were 26 better albums released this year – because generally the songs themselves aren’t as impressive as the rapping. This may well have been the intention, as previously mentioned perhaps Pharrell was only there to best present the two rappers working at peak performance. Which makes sense: you don’t want to give Pharrell too much to do, guy would probably set fire to his own big dumb hat by accident and start eating the production desk because he hasn’t learned to recognise what is and isn’t food yet. This approach means that there aren’t the same bangers that are on records like ‘Hell Hath No Fury’, and ‘Let God…’ can’t truly be considered among the duo’s absolute best.
But still: Pusha? All is forgiven.
Pharrell though? Yeah, fuck that guy. Oh yeah, Pharrell! We beefing! We beefing!
2022 #52, 2018 #37, 2016 #65 (Pusha T)
The fans go even wilder! Pushing it up to 87!
Yeah, this makes perfect sense. I also give it a 0.
Necessary Evil 