Clipse - Til The Casket Drops Review

Posted by Mac Scarle on 12.14.2009

The brothers from Virginia Beach attempt to drop a third consecutive classic.

Tracklisting:
1. Freedom (Produced By Sean C & LV)
2. Popular Demand (Popeyes) feat. Cam’ron (Produced By The Neptunes)
3. Kinda Like a Big Deal feat. Kanye West (Produced By DJ Khalil)
4. Showin’ Out feat. Yo Gotti Produced By The Neptunes)
5. I’m Good feat. Pharrell (Produced By The Neptunes)
6. There Was A Murder (Produced By DJ Khalil)
7. Door Man (Produced By The Neptunes)
8. Never Will It Stop feat. Ab-Liva (Produced By Sean C & LV)
9. Eyes On Me feat. Keri Hilson (Produced By The Neptunes)
10. Counseling (Produced By The Neptunes)
11. Champion (Produced By The Neptunes)
12. Footsteps (Produced By DJ Khalil)
13. Life Change (Produced By The Neptunes)

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The two brothers that make up Virginia Beach's Clipse are, for better or worse, pioneers. Along with (less talented, but more commercially viable) MCs like Young Jeezy, Pusha T and Malice have pioneered “coke rap,” with the lion's share of their lyrics dealing with the drug dealer lifestyle. The genre has had a fair share of backlash over the last year or two – thanks largely to the massive amounts of white hipsters who champion it – but Clipse still show a large amount of pride in being “coke rap pioneers,” as they should.

2002's Lord Willin' was absolute brilliance, a filthy, gritty record that still retained some funky feel-good vibes thanks to the excellent Neptunes production. “Grindin” and “When the Last Time” were nigh-on unavoidable that summer, and the brothers went on to high-profile collaborations with Birdman and Justin Timberlake. Released in late 2006, Hell Hath No Fury is easily one of the top five hip-hop records of the decade. Oppressively dark, minimal and surprisingly creative lyrically given the narrow subject matter, it was near flawless. After a series of equally fantastic mixtapes, Til The Casket Drops had a fair amount of hype behind it.

Let's be blunt: it doesn't deliver. Almost everything that made Lord Willin' and Hell Hath No Fury classics is missing or watered-down. It feels lazy, phoned-in...for a group to put out two instant classics, to put out an album that is simply “OK” is simply not good enough. So what the hell went wrong?

The record starts off bitter, with the Sean C & LV-produced “Freedom.” It's a statement of purpose after the relative retail failure of Hell Hath No Fury and even more record label drama. The anger in this track is almost entirely at odds with the remainder of the album – it doesn't carry anywhere beyond the jarring screamed refrain at the end of the track. There's been plenty of talk about Pusha T and Malice carrying a lot of anger and bitterness after the commercial failure of Hell Hath No Fury, but after this track it just doesn't show its face. Maybe this was done in the interest of commercial viability, maybe all that anger was used up on recent mixtapes, but it's disappointingly lacking here.

Much has been made about Clipse's breakaway from having The Neptunes as their exclusive producers, and this record introduces Sean C & LV, DJ Khalil, and Chin to the equation. After a listen, it's not entirely clear to me why this should make any sort of difference at all. The first single off Til The Casket Drops, “Kinda Like A Big Deal” is a prime example of why: despite being produced by DJ Khalil and Chin, it sounds, well...like a Neptunes track, syncopated and full of popping snares and creative instrumentation.

Indeed, the Neptunes-reminiscent production work on Til The Casket Drops is often better than the work done by the production legends themselves. As is a theme throughout the record, things feel half-assed and phoned-in. There are none of the jaw-droppingly creative and bizarre moments like on Hell Hath No Fury. The lone track where The Neptunes really show their old form is “All Eyes On Me,” a bouncy, glittering track with downright awesome orchestral hits. The brothers ride the beat well enough, but the rhyming is decent at best and Keri Hilson's inclusion is just completely unnecessary.

Lyrically, this record is disappointingly average. The coke rap has been dropped almost entirely for standard-issue rap braggadocio, and it the record suffers because of it. The guest spots from Kanye West on “Kinda Like a Big Deal” and Cam'Ron on “Popular Demand (Popeyes)” are solid, with Kanye doing good work and Cam being just as unintentionally hilarious as always. Pharrell makes a handful of uninspiring appearances, as usual – the day Pharrell ceases to rap will be a good day for hip-hop. Re-Up Gang member Ab-Liva is even somewhat underwhelming on “Never Will It Stop,” getting nowhere close to the creativity he has previously shown on mixtapes. There is a totally unnecessary amount of female hook-singing guest spots as well. This seems to be a hip-hop hallmark lately, and it's just unneeded for Clipse to have to fall into the trap. Lord Willin' didn't need it, Hell Hath No Fury certainly didn't, so why now? It's just one more way, along with the abandonment of coke-rap, that this record seems tailor-made to shoot for massive radio airplay.

And that's really the biggest let-down of this record. Lord Willin' was an undeniably radio-friendly record, dirty but still funky and upbeat. This record is just too polished, too shiny. It doesn't feel like a Clipse record. The attitude, the filth, and the reality are all gone, replaced with bog-issue radio rap. It just doesn't work for Malice and Pusha. Not at all. Couple the uninspired sound with a lack of lyrical creativity and you get and unfortunately forgettable record. This very easily could've been another masterpiece. The brothers from Virginia still have it – they've been proving it on mixtapes for years now – it just doesn't show on this record.

The 411: After two world-class releases, it was fair to assume that Malice and Pusha T would be back with another one with this record. Sadly, it's just not the case here. Isolated moments of brilliance are few and far between, and often ruined just as often as they appear. On the whole, it's just another forgettable hip-hop record - one that Clipse should have been too good to release.

Final Score:  4.5   [ Poor ]