Virginia rap duo Clipse, composed of brothers Pusha T and Malice, reportedly paid a seven-figure sum to terminate their contract with Def Jam Recordings following a disagreement over a Kendrick Lamar feature on their upcoming album.
The conflict centered on the track “Chains & Whips,” which includes a guest verse from Lamar. Def Jam executives requested that Lamar censor his verse, a demand Pusha T refused. When the label insisted on removing the song from the album, negotiations led to Clipse buying out their contract.
Pusha T’s longtime manager, Steven Victor, confirmed the buyout, stating, “They said, ‘Find another deal, and let’s figure out a business.’ They didn’t drop us. They were like, ‘Pay us this money’ — which was an exorbitant amount of money, a significant amount of money — ‘and we’ll let you out the deal.’ That’s what happened. We paid them the money, an insane amount of money. It wasn’t, like, $200,000. It was a lot of money for an artist to come up with. They bought themselves out of the deal.”
The disagreement occurred amid ongoing tensions between Lamar and fellow rapper Drake, who is currently suing Def Jam’s parent company, Universal Music Group, over the promotion of Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us.”
Following their departure from Def Jam, Clipse signed with Roc Nation to release their forthcoming album, Let God Sort Em Out, scheduled for release on July 11.
Def Jam and Universal Music Group have not publicly commented on the matter.
