Pusha T Says Def Jam’s Reason For Blocking Kendrick Lamar Collab Was “Stupid”

Key Takeaways:

• Def Jam Recordings reportedly blocked Kendrick Lamar’s verse on Clipse’s “Chains & Whips” due to a “Trump card” lyric.
• Clipse responded by buying out their contract and leaving the label.
• Pusha T says Def Jam had been censoring his lyrics since 2018, well before the Lamar collaboration.

On Monday (June 23), Clipse previewed “Chains & Whips,” a track from their upcoming album, Let God Sort Em Out, featuring none other than Kendrick Lamar. Universal Music Group, Def Jam’s parent company, however, apparently found the track was too controversial, so the duo had to buy themselves out of their contract to release it.

That, combined with both Pusha T and Lamar’s history with Drake, led fans to believe shots would definitely be fired. So, when Clipse played the Compton lyricist’s verse without any obvious subliminals or name-drops, listeners understandably didn’t know what to make of it.

“In my opinion, [Def Jam] didn’t like the optics,” the “Infrared” rapper told The New York Times’ “Popcast” in an interview published later that evening. “…Of two Drake foes teaming up,” host Joe Coscarelli said to finish his sentence, to which Pusha T agreed, “Right.”

“They pinpointed a line where the phrase ‘Trump card’ was used. It’s so stupid,” the Virginia rapper went on to explain. “They said that they didn’t want any problem with Trump or something like that.”

Though the “Trump card” bar didn’t appear in the snippet, fans still got to hear Lamar going in: “I’m not the candidate to vibe with / I don’t f**k with the kumbaya s**t / All that talent must be God-sent / I sent your a** back to the cosmics.” There may be more to unpack, especially if there are hidden jabs, but we’ll have to wait for the CDQ version on July 11 to find out.

Earlier in his chat with “Popcast,” Pusha T revealed that Def Jam had been censoring his music since 2018 — around the time “The Story Of Adidon” came out — long before Clipse even submitted their Lamar collaboration. “The Lyrics Committee, from what I understand, was supposed to take your music [and] make sure there aren’t any interpolations [or] secret samples,” he shared. “It was, for me at Def Jam, a way to censor my music or a way to make sure I wasn’t having any subliminal disses.”

“The telling part was when they’d get the lyrics wrong,” the Pusha T added. Speaking specifically about Let God Sort Em Out, he shared how Lamar’s verse effectively killed Def Jam’s enthusiasm to put Clipse’s comeback album out. “We show up with the Kendrick verse, and everything is halted. It’s halted. It’s said that it will not be put out…They would not speak via email.”