Laced: How do you feel about Lil Wayne saying he is the greatest rapper alive?

Malice:  If you Wobble Dee Wobble Dee, you can’t be a legend.

Pusha T:  You can’t kiss other men, you can’t wobble dee-wobble dee, and and you can’t bite styles.  You can’t bite everybody’s styles.  You can’t try to rap like Jay-Z, dress like the Clipse, become a coke dealer after 5 albums, and now dress like Jim Jones. You can’t do all that and be a legend.  You have to be a trendsetter and he ain’t setting any trends.

RealTalkNY was provided an exclusive preview to the Clipse recent interview found in Laced Magazine # 3 on newsstands everywhere. The Clipse don’t sound to fond of Lil Wayne and describe their style and career.

Go to http://lacedmagazine.blogspot.com/ - lacedmagazine.blogspot.com website and http://ctothejl.com/steveo - ctothejl.com/steveo for more info.

Laced:  Just a few years ago you’re doing “What Happen To That Boy” with Baby, now today Lil Wayne isn’t saying complimentary things about you. Where do you think this animosity is stemming from?

Pusha T:  Yea, Gillie wrote Baby’s part by the way.  When “He” was a legend, Gillie wrote Baby’s part.  I would’ve thought he’d go to “legend” to get it
written…He should’ve went to “legend” to get it written, but he goes to Gillie Da Kid instead. (laughs)

Malice:  I think he’s pretty much trying to save face, because you and I know what it is.  The streets said that, it wasn’t us that said it.  The streets did all
of that talking.

Pusha T:  The streets said he was biting the Clipse.  Clipse never said he was biting us, because it didn’t really matter to us.  It really don’t matter to us, we have real issues.  Like Weezy f**kin Baby (shakes head); come on man, he’s a faggot. (laughs)

Laced:  You guys have a real grassroots following within street-culture.  You have people awaiting anything and everything from you releasing mixtapes, concert performances, to the album.  What is it about your music that appeals to that audience?

Malice:  There is a realness to our music and it’s 3-Dimensional.  It’s articulate and something that definitely doesn’t come a dime a dozen.  We still have a lot of love for lyric driven hip-hop and when hip-hop was at its best, you can’t forget things like that.  We still call each other up and talk about what so-so said and so-so really bustin’.  We still have an ear for that.  It’s not all about charisma and being cute, for me it’s about having something to say.

Pusha T:  We created that following because we take risk.  I feel like if the industry is going right, then the Clipse is always going left.  Lyrically we definitely take risks talking about the stuff we talk about, but it’s not in the dummy down form.  It’s not just brick, key, brick, key…that’s too easy.  Some of the parallels we draw make you think and it’s just fly.  I compare Hell Hath No Fury to how it was just cool to be on top and have Reasonable Doubt at the time. Not everybody just went out and got it at once.  It was only the cool people who had and understood it at that moment in time, and then eventually it was one of those things that just grew from there.  I feel that street-culture is that cool culture, the innovators and fly dudes, the “first ones to have it” people. With the climate of everything that’s going on right now, how can we come out with a record like “Mr. Me Too.”  There is nothing catering to a record like “Momma I’m Sorry” as far as radio and video or “Ride Around Shining,” none of it.  It’s just them cool people are advance and they know, this is that sh*t.

Laced:  When you were younger who were you guys looking up to in reference to music and style?

Pusha T:  Rakim…I remember Rakim at the Apollo with the Air Forces and the jean suit, just killing it.  I remember the Paid In Full album cover and his whole crew were on the back looking like Rakim, everybody was the rapper on that, I didn’t know who was the rapper. They were just doing it, that was just fly, that’s how it’s suppose to be like.

Malice: KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, Juice Crew, Biggie, Large Professor…cats like that.

Laced:  As per your relationship with Bathing Ape & BBC/Ice Cream, can we expect any projects and/or collaborations between you guys coming down the
pipeline in the future?

Pusha T:  The clothing is something we like.  We’d love to start a line, but it would have to be something totally different from what’s out now.

Laced:  What is your favorite sneaker of all time?

Pusha T:  Nike Air Pegasus.  The black with the reflector stripe and pink outlining, it was mean.

Malice:  Not really a big shoe enthusiast, but classic joints like Timberland boots and Air Force Ones.  The most comfortable shoe that I can remember is the Nike Huarache.

Laced:  What separates the Clipse as artist from the rest?

Pusha T:  We just stay in our own lane.  In whatever it is that we do, we make it a point to just do something totally different.  We could’ve easily paid a lot of these guys their little $20,000-30,000 to get on a record, but for what.  They don’t have any integrity in what they do, there’s no method to their madness. They’re just running around wild, doing whatever, and trying anything.

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Laced:  Are there any existing artists or producers that you guys want to work with, besides the people in your camp?

Pusha T:  Oh yea…Timbaland, Danjahandz, Neo Da Matrix. Those are the ones.

Laced:  Lately in media, the sub-genre of “coke-rap” has been introduced and you guys have been labeled as the artists on the forefront of that.  What are you sentiments on that label?

Malice:  I feel slighted at times when people put us in a category and just label it as coke-rap.  When you listen, you’ll hear there is a lot of literature
within what we’re saying.  It’s a lot of food for thought, nothing basic or pointless about it; it’s not just coke.  We can take it back further to when we
were on Elektra, when we first came out.  The first album that we did, it was the same chemistry.  That album never came out, it got shelved, but we were
talking about the same things because it was just something we were into.  It was never like we came out and said this is what we were going to rhyme about. That’s what the content was about then, it really wasn’t a big deal, just what we knew.

Pusha T:  The coke-rap thing is just a way to put everybody in one group. And like I said, that’s something we try not to be a part of.  Granted it’s a heavy underlying theme with the Clipse, but it isn’t the same as others who are just linking words together and saying “A bitch in the kitchen, 50 on the caddy, 20 on the pinky, ice grill, castle on the hill.” (shakes his head)  I would never let my girl in the kitchen. (laughs)

Laced:  How did the whole Re-Up Gang come together?

Malice:  Re-Up Gang is basically 4 brothers with a real passion for lyric driven hip-hop.  Two guys who feel the same way about music; where it’s going and where it’s from, as we do.  And that’s Ab-Liva and Sandman, both soloist out of Philly and Re-Up Gang Members.

Laced:  What’s next up on the Re-Up Gang Records agenda.

Pusha T:  We’re doing volume 3 We Got It 4 Cheap: Spirit of Competition. We’ll also be shooting the movie, Hell Hath No Fury which will be the story of the hell hath no fury; the hiatus up until now.  It’s being directed by Cecil Vera, well known for Shottas.  The movie will also be accompanied with a soundtrack which will just be all Re-Up Gang music.

Laced:  Any last words?

Pusha T: Thanks to the fans for just riding with us.  It’s because of y’all we’re out here doing these shows and have this cult following which creates the demand.

Check Laced Magazine # 3 For Full Interview & More