Pusha T - Wrath Of Caine

It's been well over a decade since the Bros. Thornton exploded out of VA with Grindin'. Since then, we've seen some dramatic changes in the Clipse franchise, most notably the conversion of Malice to Christianity, a change that begs the question as to how these proponents of cocaine rap will continue in the vein (pause) that they have previously.

While his brother pursues higher minded paths, rest assured that Pusha T continues to spit the drug raps, as evinced by the enchanting cover art for Wrath Of Caine. He's down with your boy Kanye and his GOOD Music collective, a affiliation that keeps him on a decent profile to the crossover hip-hop community. There's a new record called My Name Is My Name coming down the pike soon, but in the interim we have this new mixtape to build anticipation.

Wrath Of Caine lives up to its label's name in that it is definitely good, but far from great. There are guest spots from Rick Ross (yawn) and French Montana (what is the appeal?) to get the young heads all worked up, plus old school cronies like Ab Liva and Wale for those that have followed the Re-Up for a bit. Pusha is in pretty good form and can still unleash a serious verse or two when called upon, see: Blocka, but I can't say I'm going to go out of my way to listen to this again.

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Pusha T - Fear Of God

Your boy Pusha has had a pretty good year or so. Even if your first exposure was on Runaway, you'd be a fool to dispute that the VA boy is nice with his, but the Kanye connection has really taken T to the next level. This mixtape comes courtesy of Re-up Gang and Whoo Kid and has a dozen tracks (as well as the obligatory Scarface intro) that should do pretty well when it comes to whetting peoples appetite for the Pusha T debut on Good Music.

As you might surmise, the drug game is often referenced, as are the spoils and female companionship that results from such entrepreneurial endeavors. Rick Ross shows up to kill a verse with Ab-Liva, while Pharrell and 50 bring big guns but ultimately don't do so well. The young people may feel differently. Ye shows up for a track that is definitely not on the level of Runaway, but does bode well for another solid collabo when the new record drops. Pusha is definitely one of the sharpest out there, but the lyrics don't carry the tired mid-tempo vocoderisms of Cook It Down. I wouldn't call this a must-own, but if you rep for the Re-Up, you could do a lot worse than Fear Of God.

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Clipse - Til The Casket Drops

Finally, we have a new release from VA's finest, aka The Clipse. They have ridden a round robin of majors in the last couple years, tarrying at Jive and Arista before settling at Columbia for the short term. The Bros. Thornton are no fools, so it's been all about the licensing. The gents are affiliated with Star Trak and have their own Re-up imprint, which begs the question why they insist on bothering with a major in the first place, especially given their purported *ahem* entreprenurial acumen.

Til The Casket Drops is an interesting (assumably Pyrex) kettle of fish. It's definitely a departure from the street rhyming of their early records and mix tapes, all bright and shiny and Jay-Z'd up. I'm not so crazy about the turn, although truth be told, Mal and Pusha still rhyme their asses off. A lot is being made of the departure from exclusively Neptunes beats, but don't think you're getting drastic departures when Khalil or Sean C are at the helm. Respect is due to all the parties here, but why they didn't choose a single Primo or Just Blaze beat is beyond me. I will give begrudging props to the Kanye track, but won't go so far as to say that I'm crazy about a fucking Cam'ron collabo. All in all, Til The Casket Drops is a decent record, but nothing here is going to knock Joell or Sean P off my playlists anytime soon.

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