So now that the dust has settled and every one has taken their places in the line of best rap album of 2006, I feel it’s safe to say I like Clipse’s new album. I like it a lot. I even included it in my top 15 for our friends over at 30music. I adore it for its strict rap sensibilities (minus the shitty R&B song at the end) and my boy Pharrell (taking time away from his endless video appearances) has finally stringed together a solid collection of beats that hit hard and unique. I’ll admit to liking very little commercial rap, but here Pusha-T and Malice, despite rapping about things I can no way relate to (coke deals, fast cars, the florida drug scene, excessive money and expensive tastes), I still find myself enjoying this album over and over again. Not since Vaudeville Villain, the Cold Vein, the Black Album, or Fantastic Damage has a rap album been this repeatable for me. The praise is well placed and deserved. (And really, how much of the music we listen to can we actually relate to, very little I imagine.)

Regarding these two videos, they have been around for a bit, ‘Mr. Me Too’ being the first released with ‘Wamp Wamp’ sliding in second. I am puzzled to say though that I haven’t seen either of these on the tele and I do watch a lot of music video television. I figured with all the hype surrounding this release, they would be inescapable when browsing MTV late at night. My problem could be that I don’t watch 106 & Park enough, but in my defense, BET isn’t near all the rest of my music video channels in my Dish Network guide, which in turn takes extra effort to get up/down to its location. I know, what a pain. The videos themselves portray Clipse in the usual rap fashion of women+money+cars equation, but I will say this, for being rappers/drug dealers from Virginia, they do know how to dress and I can respect a man for that. R. Malcom Jones gets directorship duties here and does a standard job, nothing extraordinary. He follows the same cookie cutter plan of making the rappers look good and surrounding them with women. A tried and true approach.

As a bonus I’ve included my favorite track from Hell Hath No Furry, so get it and then go get the album.

Clipse – Dirty Money

   Clipse – Wamp Wamp (R. Malcolm Jones)

Via Sony

Via SRO (37.9 MB)

Clipse – Mr. Me Too (R. Malcolm Jones)

Via Sony

Via SRO (35.6 MB)