"I LOVE the shit. But it's HARD to defend it" - Chris Rock
And here are the Clipse. And this is the new album. It's highly anticipated being that the execs over at Jive/Zomba have had a corporate choke hold on the albums release for a couple of years now and it has finally seen a release date. These guys had to pretty much record a whole new fuckin' album in that span. Their last album, Lord Willin', was incredible. Sure the overall theme of it was littered with cocaine coloquials and flipped metaphor after metaphor in that vein. Even so, street hustlin' coke talk never sounded so good. Hell Hath No Fury is pretty much a sequel, not in any thematic way, but overall content stays relatively consistent - "I'm a hustler. Keys open doors. I lay bricks like Shaq. I'm the snowman, call me frosty." "Powder" this and "China White" that... And so on and so forth... But man, do they make the it all sound good. Plus, the Neptunes sound never came off better. It glistens. It cracks. It sputters. It gallops. It shines. After hearing the production on Hell Hath... it's hard to believe Pharrell's solo album turned out to be shit stew. This album boasts the best Neptunes production I've heard in a looonngg while. Those who know, know.
The Clipse are confident. They have an undeniable swagger and it is executed perfectly through this 12 track manifesto. Their approach is one of indifference. They don't care what anyone thinks and it works to their credit because the album's floss is utterly convincing. The fact that you don't agree with them doesn't mean you can't appreciate the performances. From it's opener "We Got It For Cheap", complete with hyped organ stabs and cluttering drums (the generic Tony Montana bullshit throughout the track is like a zit on a diva though, just sayin'), to the fiendish "Nighmares" featuring Bilal, Hell Hath No Fury is the most complete album this year in it's tight, 12 track bundle.
