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Clipse

Clipse are a legendary hip-hop duo hailing from Virginia consisting of brothers Pusha T and Malice, and one of the earliest collaborators with Pharrell Williams' production entity The Neptunes. Having met with Williams in the early 90s, he helped them in getting their first recording contract with Elektra Records in 1996. Having failed to make a commercial impact with their debut album 'Exclusive Audio Footage', Clipse were dropped from the label. Williams again helped the duo in 2001 by signing them to his Star Trak imprint of Arista Records. This brought immediate commercial success, with their first release 'Lord Willin'' opening at number one on the Billboard Top R&B Albums Chart, and eventually being certified gold. After providing rhymes on Justin Timberlake's hit 'Like I Love You', Clipse were entangled in the merger between Sony and BMG, and eventually found a home on Jive Records, who released the critically-acclaimed 'Hell Hath No Fury' in 2006, with hip-hop magazine XXL giving it a five-star review. Clipse moved away from The Neptunes, who had exclusively produced their previous releases, on the follow-up ''Til The Casket Drops' which featured production from Sean Combs (aka Diddy)'s team The Hitmen. In 2010, Clipse announced that each of the duo was to forge solo careers with Pusha T signing to Kanye West's G.O.O.D Music label, while Malice changed his name to No Malice and released a memoir, entitled 'Wretched, Pitiful, Poor, Blind & Naked'. The band briefly reformed in 2019 to feature on Kanye West's track 'Use This Gospel' from the 'Jesus Is King' album.