Clipse |
As you’re hopefully aware, the Virginia coke-rap duo Clipse are coming to the Station on Saturday. Seems as good a time as any to talk about why the album they’ll be pushing, Hell Hath No Fury, is the best mainstream rap album of the decade.
Hyperbole? Not even close. Hip-hop albums these days, even good ones, are bloated affairs. Hype-men and unfunny skits bloat an extra ten minutes onto already overloaded, guest-heavy, and redundant albums that serve as overpriced vessels for three or four hot singles. Even Jay-Z’s last two albums could each be summarized in two words: “I quit!” and “I’m back!”
Outside of one (granted: unnecessary) dialogue clip from Pulp Fiction, Hell Hath No Fury is a lean, taut monster. It’s misogynist, vulgar, glamorizing, violent, and everything else “bad” about rap music. But it also acknowledges drug-pushing and all the music that comes from it as the dangerous underworld it is. It’s as easy to get into as it is impossible to escape.
That duality’s all over the album. “Momma I’m Sorry” encapsulates the temptation battling the guilt: “Momma I’m so sorry/I’m so obnoxious/Got two hot rocks in my pocket/...My only accomplice/My conscience.” Even the braggadocio of a track like “Dirty Money” can’t help but keep calling the money dirty. The surprising soul/R&B groove of “Nightmares” closes the album on a chilling note: “These four walls are closing in/These voices ain’t my friends/They’re haunting me/Those memories.”
And those beats! HHNF was produced by the notorious Neptunes; it’s career-defining work. The duo perverts accordions and piano keys along with any manner of exotic drums to create an environment that trumps even mid-’90s Dr. Dre; where Dre created a carnival funhouse, Pharrell and Chad Hugo have built a living, breathtaking house of horrors. Even the nasty synth loop on “Trill” is eerily scant and isolating.
If Hell Hath No Fury’s critical adoration but relatively weak sales are any indication, the world isn’t quite ready for such brute, uncompromising rap (read: rap that doesn’t pander and sell out). No matter. It’ll still sound like the wave of the future in a decade.
