Pusha T has maintained a strong standard of excellence in the 25+ years he’s been rapping. Alongside his brother Malice as Clipse, they released two of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.
They devoured Pharrell and Chad Hugo’s robust production with some of the most intricate drug-dealing raps you would hear on record. Then, when Malice dedicated his life to Christ, that left Push on his own in the music industry.
Ultimately, though, the Virginia legend continued his hot streak when he signed on as president of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music label. Diss songs against Drake made him seem impenetrable. Strong albums like DAYTONA marked Pusha T as one of the best rappers in the game. It’s that album that made Complex certify him as the best rapper of 2018, electrifying in its tight runtime.
Pusha T Challenged Veteran Rappers to Step Up Their Game After Releasing ‘Daytona’
Journalist Frazier Tharpe asked how Push felt like he had changed as a rapper since the first time he rapped alongside his brother. At the time, he felt like he was measuring up alongside the all-time greats. Consequently, Pusha T wanted to show that veteran rappers can hop on a record and really flex their chops.
“I feel like right now, I’m running a race with all of the greats that I feel like never gave [us] that album that I wanted from them later in their careers. You know, sometimes I just felt like, ‘Damn, I wish Em gave me a Lyricist Lounge album,’” Push said.
“The guys who have really achieved that success, like, fully, fully achieved that level of success, I want them to talk. I wish they made it for that core fan and for that time period. And that’s just me being selfish,” Pusha T continued.
“So it’s like, with the way music is consumed, how time has changed, and where I am in my career, I feel like I’m afforded that a little bit,” he went on to add. “I’m afforded that in just how consistent I’ve been. So DAYTONA is the product of me just trying to do something that I felt like others haven’t done at this stage in their career.”
In the end, he explained how DAYTONA was his take on Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. With a lyrical exercise of that magnitude, Push’s aim for his next album was to show all of his strengths as an artist.
“Album number four, I think I wanna get back into more song structure, and bridges, hooks. More of my ’02 self. More of my ’02 Clipse self, actually. I feel like that way, if I execute on that, then you’re actually seeing both sides,” Pusha T told Complex.
“You’re getting just the rap purist of me, and then you’d be getting the new rap artist who went through the school of Neptunes, being from Virginia Beach, seeing the Teddy Riley era, listening and loving all of this stuff,” he added. “Just trying to absorb all of that energy—Timbaland, Missy. I think those are two different sides of the spectrum. And one I just executed on. The next one, hopefully, I could do just as well.”
The post Pusha T Belives He’s Become a Better Rapper Since Clipse’s Early Days: ‘I’m Running a Race With All of the Greats’ appeared first on VICE.
