On this day in 2006, Virginia Beach’s own Clipse released the sophomore LP Hell Hath No Fury. Coming a whole four years after their celebrated, chart-topping debut Lord Willin’, Hell Hath No Fury did everything but disappoint. Produced exclusively by fellow Virginia Beach natives, The Neptunes, this album builds on Clipse’s unique take on mafioso rap culture. The contrast of the album’s hardcore, to-the-point lyrics and Pharrell’s colorfully playful production work to create a new style of drug dealer music.
It’s common knowledge that the hurdles set up in the way of this album’s release were aplenty. Clipse’s early growth led to them being pulled in all directions and, in an interview with Bill Withers, they spoke on how the music industry itself can paralyze an artist, and how that halted their creativity. Nevertheless, the duo came back stronger than ever, delivering an album that set a precedent in east coast rap. During the early 2000s, Virginia was on the rise with artists like The Neptunes and Timberland dominating the production game and Missy Elliot and Ginuwine topping charts. With this album, Clipse was able to keep Virginia relevant as it moved past the halfway point of the decade.
Although the album was not as commercially successful as Lord Willin’, it did peak at #14 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop albums. The LP sold 78,000 in its first week and produced two singles, “Mr. Me Too” featuring Pharrell and “Wamp Wamp (What It Do)” that both had some success on the R&B/Hip Hop charts.
Drake dropped his new album, Scary Hours 3, today — leaving fans wondering if he had thrown any new shots toward Pusha T, as the two have had a documented feud that spans over a decade.
Things don’t seem to have died down and Drake does, quoting one of Pusha’s former diss tracks toward him on his new song, “Wick Man.”
Here’s a timeline of the disses that have happened between the two rappers, for those who might need a refresher.
Back in 2012, Pusha T dissed Drake on his song “Exodus 23:1,” with the latter offering a response on “Tuscan Leather” the next year.
However, things didn’t end there. In 2016, Pusha used “HGTV Freestyle” to accuse Drake of using a ghostwriter on his songs.
By 2018, things seemed to reach a peak when it comes to tension between the two. Not even 24 hours after Pusha dropped his Daytona album, Drake put out a “Duppy Freestyle” to point out that his nemesis’ career is faded.
“I had a microphone of yours, but then the signature faded / I think that pretty much resembles what’s been happenin’ lately,” Drake said.
Pusha quickly snapped back by revealing that Drake had a son and dubbed him a “deadbeat” on “The Story Of Adidon.”
Later that year, Drake and Pusha T both do separate interview appearances where they discuss the reveal of Drake’s kid. By the end of 2019, Drake also sat down with Rap Radar, where he called his feud with Pusha his “first loss in the competitive sport of rapping.”
That Drake sure is a rascal. We all know that a new Drake project usually means a new collection of slights against his critics, enemies — real or imagined, and any number of former paramours who’ve wronged him in some way. His latest release, For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition, is no different, bringing with it a slew of disses for former flames and current nemeses.
So, who does Drake diss on Scary Hours 3?
Well, in the song “Stories About My Brother,” Drake certainly responds to Joe Budden‘s lukewarm reception of the original For All The Dogs. “Imagine us gettin’ our validation from an ex-musician searchin’ for recognition,” he raps, which is most probably a reference to Budden’s former career as a rapper. Budden has since turned to being a volatile podcast host, slinging hot takes in the hopes of viral fame (to his credit and the chagrin of Budden haters everywhere, it mostly works).
Then, on “Wick Man,” Drake quotes Pusha T‘s 2018 diss track “The Story Of Adidon,” which effectively turned the audience against him in their beef at the time, but hasn’t seemed to do much for his rival’s fortunes since. “Man, I remember n****s was jokin’ ’bout some tick, tick / And now that rapper broke as f*ck / That boy a statistic.”
So, Drake’s streak of petty posturing continues. Since it doesn’t look like he’ll actually be taking that break anytime soon after announcing an extended tour with J. Cole, perhaps his targets will take the opportunity to fire back.
The holiday season is supposed to be a time of peace and tranquility. However, Drake had other things in store. Today (November 17), the rapper gifted fans with new music. His latest album, For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition, is a spicy clapback at his biggest critics. So, did Drake diss Pusha T on Scary Hours 3?
According to the fans, the answer is yes. In the Alchemist-produced song “Wick Man,” Drake seemingly aims at his longtime rival. During the first verse, Drake raps, “Man, I remember n****s was jokin’ ’bout some tick, tick / And now that rapper broke as f*ck / That boy a statistic / Empty clips, yeah.” To drive home his point, the last line repeats throughout the track.
He continues in the second verse, saying, “Play ’bout the fact I was born a perfectionist / Still can’t even wrap my mind around the success of this / Point me to your boss, n****, you a receptionist,” seemingly as a shot at Kanye West.
Listeners believe Drake’s latest project is filled with other subliminal and direct jabs. Some of the other folks in his scope include Joe Budden. Hell, even Black Americans received a lyrical shot.
Spectators will be on the lookout for Pusha’s response. But last year, when asked how he feels about Drake continuously dissing him, Pusha replied, “It just lets me know how deep it hurt him.”
Listen to “Wick Man” above.
For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition is out now via OVO/Republic. Find more information here.
Pusha T albums can be summarized with a quote from the Virginia rapper, himself, straight out of “Untouchables”: “I drops every blue moon to separate myself from you kings of the YouTube.” Push has dropped solo projects in 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2022. The gaps between each release only create more hype amongst his fans, especially since he doesn’t do many features between each album drop.
His most recent album, 2022’s It’s Almost Dry, sold 55K units in its first week and went No. 1 on the Billboard 200 because of streaming. However, 2018’s DAYTONA is his best-selling album, with 77K units sold in its first week. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Let’s look back at the project that helped amass Pusha T’s significant success.
The creative processes of Pusha T albums are often shared by the rapper through interviews. However, the album’s creation made headlines with DAYTONA because of its executive producer, Kanye West. In 2018, Kanye moved to Wyoming and bought a 4,000-acre piece of land home to a $7 million ranch. Here, Kanye produced Pusha T’s entire album – and four others – in a moment known in modern music history as the “Wyoming Sessions.” DAYTONA was the first release from this batch, and the others followed weekly in May 2018. Unfortunately, there was not a livestream for this album listening party like the other releases, but it dropped on time with no errors – unlike some other releases.
Pusha T Believes In Quality Over Quantity
Listeners know Pusha T albums for valuing quality over quantity, but DAYTONA is the best example of this. With only seven tracks and no intro, outro or interlude, the album is as straightforward as it gets. In an interview with NPR, Pusha shared that this tracklist length was not his original plan. “I probably wanted to be 12. 10 or 12,” he said.
However, Kanye had other plans. He wanted the album to have eight songs but brought it down to seven. Ironically, Push said he sent seven paragraphs to Ye about why he disagreed with the short tracklist. Kanye’s decision worked excellently, with fans having fun debates about which song was truly best and every song having over 25 million streams. The opening track, “If You Know You Know,” has a title that has become a common saying across social media, often abbreviated to “IYKYK.”
Like all Pusha T albums, coke bars and lyrical dexterity are running themes throughout DAYTONA. However, Push sometimes delves away from them and dedicates a whole song to a more vulnerable subject matter. “Santeria” finds him discussing the death of De’Von “Day Day” Pickett, his close friend and road manager. 070 Shake’s haunting vocals help this one have a completely different atmosphere than the other songs, but the beat switch in its final moments brings the album’s core sound back.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention “Infrared” an integral moment in the ongoing feud between him and Drake. The sparse instrumental gave the song a menacing tone, and listeners quickly picked up on the references to Drake and those he knew. This later led to one of the biggest moments in modern rap history – Pusha T exposing that Drake had a son.
Pusha T’s Success Continues
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – SEPTEMBER 03: Pusha T performs onstage during 2022 Made In America at Benjamin Franklin Parkway on September 03, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Roc Nation)
DAYTONA is a Pusha T album that helped solidify his presence in the rap game for anyone who doubted him. The album would help push him to more commercial success when its follow-up, 2022’s It’s Almost Dry, went No. 1 on the Billboard 200. DAYTONA was released during the “Surgical Summer,” as Push himself called it, that had rap fans talking and its final track had people that didn’t even listen to him talking.
Push said the album’s title, which refers to a Rolex watch of the same name, meant he had the luxury of time. However, the original title of the album was King Push. Still, no matter how long the wait was, listeners would tap in with his music. The album’s success proved this and people are still listening to it today. It’s been called his best and one of the best in all of modern rap.
CyHi is back, dropping off a new single in “Mr. Put that Shit On” a new collaborative effort with Pusha T. The two former G.O.O.D. Music vets drop their bars of luxury brands from Richard Millie to Hermes to Gucci over a banger laced with violin strings. Press play on this audio adventure to Bergdorf Goodman below.
Five years ago, Pusha T set his sights on Drake, unleashing “The Story of Adidon,” a scathing diss track that revealed Drake was “hiding a child.” Flash forward to today, Pusha and Drake didn’t make up like The Boy did with Meek Mill; in fact, it feels like their beef can erupt again at any time.
Speaking on the historic diss is No I.D., who made the “Adidon” beat, but it originally served as the score for JAY-Z’s “The Story of OJ.” Speaking with Stereogum, No I.D. revealed that he told King Push not to use the beat for the diss, but he did it anyway.
“I told [Pusha T], don’t do it, and he did it anyway,” No I.D. said. “I told his manager, Steven Victor, he called me about it. And I was like no, that’s not even the spirit of the song, bro, why would you pick that one? That wasn’t lack of love for him and what he was doing and his art. It was just, again, there’s times I don’t wanna be involved in certain things, because it’s not me.”
In case you need to revisit the single, press play below.
After he received less than favorable feedback from fans regarding his teaser snippet for the song “Flex,” Kid Cudi returned to the creativity drawing board. Unfortunately, extra time was needed to make that musical pivot so that Cudi could rethink his approach for his forthcoming album, Insano. Ultimately, he postponed the project, which was slated to drop in June. Due to the temporary album setback, Cudi has fed fans other collaborations, including a campaign with Star Trek and a song with Lil Durk.
Thanks to his recent concert, supporters have more insight into what the future holds for the body of work. Here are the features on Cudi’s upcoming ‘Insano’ album. Following Cudi’s last Cudder’s Clubhouse performance at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday, October 15, he took to X (formerly Twitter) to confirm a handful of collaborations that could appear on the project.
Cudi confirmed Pusha T and Travis Scott during an exchange with a fan on the platform. According to HotNewHipHop, other suspected cameos include ASAP Rocky, Young Thug, and Lil Yachty.
Man thank u so much!! Got a couple extra features I havent announced yet so stay tuned. I really think yall will be happy. #INSANO#MOONMANhttps://t.co/XtEIzL0KHY
Pusha T’s career in hip-hop is one of the greatest of all time. It all started with his duo Clipse back in the early 1990s. He and his brother,No Malice were a great pairing giving us phenomenal tracks. Then, they eventually split and Push went on to forge his own path. It is been nothing short of an amazing run. He is most known for his coke raps and aggressive tone on the mic.
However, what some fans might not know is that the Virginia native has done a fair amount of crossovers with non-hip hop artists. Back in 2013, he teamed up with Justin Timberlake for the “TKO (Black Friday Remix).” While it did include other rappers A$AP Rocky and J. Cole, it was still an unexpected moment. One year later, Push and EDM producer Hudson Mohawke remixed “Chimes.” Now, he is back hopping into other genres with the indie pop band, Phoenix.
Listen To “All Eyes On Me” From Phoenix, Pusha T, BENEE, & Chad Hugo
The France band put out a song called “All Eyes On Me” last year. It landed on their record Alpha Zulu. Pitchfork shared that Pusha T and Phoenix first previewed this remix this summer at the We Love Green Festival. It also grabs producer from The Neptunes, Chad Hugo, as well as singer BENEE. This is certainly a unique collaboration, but give it a spin with the link above.
What are your initial thoughts on this brand new remix of Phoenix’s track “All Eyes On Me” with BENEE, Chad Hugo, and Pusha T? Is this better than the original version? Do you like when Pusha T does crossovers like this? We would like to hear what you have to say about all of this. So, with that in mind, be sure to leave all of your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below. Additionally, always keep it locked in with HNHH for all of the latest breaking news around Pusha T, as well as all of the hottest song releases in hip-hop and other genres.
Quotable Lyrics:
All eyes on me I’m not innocent, I’m militant I’m knee-deep in this dirty money I’m breaking bad and I’m vigilant How could I not benefit? The realest one amongst counterfeit
Got a couple extra features I havent announced yet so stay tuned. I really think yall will be happy. 
I LOVE YOU ALL!!! FUCKKKK WE DID THAT MANE!!! THANK U FOR SHARING THIS MOMENT W ME 
ILL NEVER FORGET IT MAN
🫨 THE CLUBHOUSE IS HITTIN THE ROAD AND COMIN TO A TOWN…