Following a long hiatus, brothers Pusha T and No Malice have finally reunited as Clipse. After years apart, the iconic hip-hop duo is back in the studio, working on their hotly-anticipated fourth album, Let God Sort ’Em Out, their first full project in nearly fifteen years. To give fans a taste of what’s coming, they dropped two promotional singles, Ace Trumpets on May 30 followed up with So Be It, which dropped two days ago. Despite only landing on streaming platforms 48-hours ago, the track is already being hailed as a classic thanks in large part to its haunting beat, which samples Maza Akoulou by late Saudi musician and composer Talal Maddah.
Born in the holy city of Mecca in 1940, Maddah is widely regarded as a central figure in modern Arabic music. Over the course of a prolific five-decade career, he is said to have recorded over 1,000 songs. Revered across generations, Maddah’s influence extends far beyond the region, as evidenced by Clipse’s deliberate use of his work— an artistic choice that can only be perceived as both honorific and deliberate. It’s a move that also places Clipse in the growing lineage of hip-hop artists drawing sonic inspiration from our region—joining the likes of A$AP Rocky, who sampled Assala in 1Train, and Future, who sampled Rayan in Wicked.
But it’s not just the production that’s sparking conversation. So Be It has also made waves for its lyrical content, particularly a not-so-subtle jab aimed at Travis Scott. In the song’s final verse, Pusha uses Utopia — the title of Scott’s fourth studio album released in 2023— as a stand-in for the Houston rapper himself, while making a pointed reference to a woman with a successful lip-gloss business who no longer needs his money to “eat.” The line is widely interpreted as a shot at Kylie Jenner, Travis’ ex and the founder of Kylie Cosmetics.
“You cried in front of me / You died in front of me / Calabasas took your bitch and your pride in front of me,” Pusha T raps. “Heard Utopia had moved right up the street / And her lip gross was poppin’, she ain’t need you to eat / The net gon’ call it the way that they see it / But I got the video, I can share and A.E. it.”
What’s more, in a recent GQ interview released around the same time as the track, Pusha T explained that the root of the diss stems from a feeling of betrayal. He claims that Scott played him and Pharrell Williams an early version of a song called Meltdown without Drake’s verse, only for the final version to include a diss aimed at them both.
With just a few weeks left before Let God Sort ’Em Out hits the public—currently slated for release on July 11—all we can do is wait to see what statements Pusha T still has up his sleeve. Known for calling out those he doesn’t align with or respect, he’s long positioned himself as rap’s unflinching moral compass, unafraid to stir tension when he feels it’s warranted. This is, after all, the man behind one of the most devastating diss tracks in modern hip-hop history, the one that famously forced Drake to publicly acknowledge the existence of his son Adonis. So yes, the rap world is watching closely, and no doubt, a few artists must be biting their nails in the meantime, anxiously waiting to see who his next target will be.
