AHHHHHHH! Real Monsters: The Clipse- Lord Willin

Sep 04, 2007

AHHHHHHH! Real Monsters: The Clipse- Lord Willin · by Abe Beame

Sadly, the crack rap movement is over. There were some highs (Trap or Die) and some lows (Thug Motivation 102) but essentially there’s only so many albums you can listen to filled with nothing but analogies you can make concerning cocaine, baking soda and boiling water and only so many ways to express how much of it you’ve sold. The genre got stale fast and we gather here today to mourn the dearly departed. When we look back on the time and place I expect there won’t be many tears shed, probably a little embarrassment and a lot of laughs for former dick riders, but one resonant, lasting piece of art was produced by the moment, and no I’m not talking about The Fix. I’m referring to two brothers from Virginia, who were assisted by a production powerhouse also hailing from the Cavalier State at the top of their games. Before the self parody, before the sales explosion and hipster justification, yes, even before Rick Ross, there was Lord Willin.

As a quick aside, from a production standpoint the album has a completely unique sound to anything the Neptunes ever did or would go on to do. It’s a shame they can’t helm more projects front to back such as they did on this occasion, because their James-Brown-and-Prince-doing-acid-in-space instrumentation, which can sometimes standout on their lone contributions towards other albums, crafts a perfectly bizarre, dark universe for Malice and Pusha T to shape. “I’m not you” is their album in a beat, combining a steel drum, busy, unorthodox drum patterns filled with clicks and high hats that would make Thom Yorke paler and an apocalyptic synth it’s hard to imagine anyone but the Clipse, Jada and Styles (two rappers, who along with Fabolous really make it clear just where the Bronx born brothers’ influences lie) trading harder than nails punchlines over.

The album’s intro lives up to its name in a way that few do in Hip Hop. The Clipse literally introduce themselves and give a sort of portrait of the dealer as a young man. Pusha was mesmerized by Crockett, Tubbs and Calderon while Malice’s first connect was his own grandma. Early on we are given two images of the boys growing up in a kind of culture of cocaine, they are bombarded by media images, sympathizing with the bad guy who lives a life of freedom and luxury they can only dream of and in the household they are third generation hustlers, learning their trade and even being schooled to the game by a family matriarch.

With handshakes and hellos set aside the album begins its exploration of our darkest trade, and in some respects human nature itself. Take a particularly revealing image in the bleak, somber “Virginia.” As Pusha takes us on a tour through a desolate, desperate, poverty stricken hell hole where survival at all costs is the only rule, he and his boys smirk at the outrage and indignation surrounding the OJ Simpson verdict. Here is the strain, the running theme that ties this album together. While the world wrings its hands and clings to ideas of morality and justice, the Clipse have come to a greater understanding of this country’s true nature. It is run by money, powerful favors and backroom handshakes. They take OJ’s guilt for granted because the truth is irrelevant, all that matters is the trial and the verdict and they are familiar with real killers who have beat more than their fair share of bodies for principles far less “noble” than love. This point is only reinforced later on during “Ego” when Pusha delivers this line in his perma sneer, self assured monotone: “Money is my morals, other than that I’m soulless/Refuse to wake up, zeroless and O-less”. Bottom line.

Our only respite is Malice’s eloquent finale on the aforementioned “I’m Not You.”:

It shames me to no end, / To feed poison to those who could very well be my kin / But where there’s demand, someone will supply / So I feed them their needs at the same time cry / Yes it pains me to see them need this / All of them lost souls and I’m their Jesus / Deepest regret and sympathy to the street / I see no pity for they fix when they kids couldn’t eat / And with this in mind, I still didn’t quit / And that’s how I know, that I ain’t shit / My heart bleed but that’s aside from the fact / I live for my kids and theirs and them youngins after that.

Probably above all other aspects, it is this note of simple acknowledgment that separates Lord Willin from its peers of the period. Rather than trying to feed us Georgia Power (Jeezy) or the Government (Young Buck) as the bad guys and shrug off responsibility, the Clipse concede the contradictions and troubled sleep that come along with being a death merchant. However, they ultimately buy into Darwin’s Law. If it comes down to you and yours or me and mine, I’ll take mine every time.

Personally, I never understood the hype and critical acclaim heaped upon Hell Hath No Fury. What I heard is two MCs on cruise control mostly playing word games with big money talk. Not that I blame the critics. The Clipse in their essence were something new, scary and interesting, somehow avant garde and its only natural to attempt to will a classic into existence even when the material isn’t there. The classic had come and gone with little notice long before Clinton Sparks started demanding that we get familiar. Lord Willin is a first person account of a distinctly American struggle. A confusing, troubling time when everyone was searching for answers as to who exactly was responsible for the misery running rampant in the streets. The Clipse leave us with several theories, the usual suspects of country, society and family. But their most troubling offender, the most unique and profound and perhaps honest, is the individual. It is a will to power, completely conscious and comfortable with the damage being done. It is a hunger for more by any means necessary. Are they compelled by issues of need, set up by a system in which the dice have been rigged and they’re meant to fail? Sure. But that is the heart of darkness lying at the core of this album, and it is that proposition that makes Lord Willin worthwhile.

Comments for "AHHHHHHH! Real Monsters: The Clipse- Lord Willin"

such the excellent post. Amen. so true. HHNF was overblown, LW is genuinely great for all the right reasons

— wes Sep 4, 04:13 PM
Great analysis. Reminds me of my feature on Mobb Deep’s The Infamous LP, except that Mobb Deep’s narrators never take full responsibility for the perpetuity of the crack epidemic, so much as they resign themselves to a chillingly pragmatic participation in an economy ruled only by an indeterminate contingencies.

— R.H.S. Sep 4, 04:29 PM
Nice.

The Intro, Young Boy, and Virginia are incredible songs. There are some other good tracks on the album, but they are very different from the 3 I mention above.

The Clipse can make some good crack/$/jewels/car wordplay songs, but they get old. I’d love to see them revisit the autobiographical material or tackle different subjects.

— eauhellzgnaw Sep 4, 05:10 PM
I’ll still maintain that while “Hell Hath No Fury” is the superior album lyrically, “Lord Willin’” has the best production (and the best production the Neptunes ever did).

— Train Sep 4, 05:15 PM
great write up. i only came to the clipse in the wake of all the hype for hhnf – had low expectations for lord willin; but was blown away.

on ‘lord willin’ the reflective / autobiographical aspects work much better – on hhnf, it just seemed chucked in to balance the money-talk.

good point on the lox, too. clipse have more in common with them and mobb deep than with all the current batch of rappers. hopefully, that’ll mean they have more longevity.

— Ass Hat Sep 4, 05:25 PM
Amen…

— edgar c Sep 4, 09:27 PM
I like “Lord Willing” It’s a good album. The lines you quote are amazing (And some of my faves too) but the album in it’s entirety isn’t that good.

Songs like “When’s The Last Time” and “Ma I Don’t Love Her” have Clipse making songs that they really aren’t all that comfortable with and have them out of their element (Tracks like “Famlay Freestlye” and “Lets Talk Bout It” are just plain weak). They were surrendering to the mainstream (which I totally understand) and the record suffers because of it.

Hell Hath is a much better album. Not only for it’s unique sound, but because of it’s gritty truth behind the money talk. Yes there is big money talk, but behind it there is a dark sadness to lines like; “You don’t have to love me, just be convincing/”

If you take in songs like “Virgina” and “I’m Not You” on their own they seem stronger than Hell Hath, but listen to both albums straight through and you’ll see HHNF is much stronger because it makes no real mainstream concessions and stays focused throughout. LW in comparison sounds slapped together.

You wrote before:

“While the album is being marketed as a dark brooding art record, it’s really not all that much of a downer. At least half of the record is upbeat and/or major key.”

The darkness to the album is not in the forefront of the sound nor the style, it’s in the linear notes when you take into consideration the lifestyle that Push and Mal are actually discussing. The feeling portrayed in those last lines in “I’m Not You” are spread out through all of Hell Hath.

The positive things you say about LW can be said about Clipse style in general.

Overall, this is a good post and LW is a good album. But Hell Hath is greater.

— Incilin Sep 4, 10:22 PM
Ohh, btw you forgot my all time fave Clipse line;

“Ironic, the same place I’m making figures at, is the same place they they used to hang niggas at!”

AHHH! That’s a monster line. It’s one of the best lines I eva heard in any song. I remember when I saw Clipse live and Malice hung his chain upside down when said that line. Shit was ill.

— Incilin Sep 4, 10:34 PM
Incilin,

Just to let you know, you referenced the earlier Oh Word post as if it was by the same author as this one.

The bullet-pointed HHNF post you referred to is by Sach O, while this is Abe Beame’s first post here (though he has been a regular commmenter).

I just wanted to clear that up.

— Rafi Sep 4, 11:47 PM
Great abum. Good write up.

— EnglandRepresent Sep 5, 12:39 AM
HHNF was a more concise effort and the album had lots of materialism but all the money talk seemed much more depressing because the Clipse detailed how they achieved their wealth. Both these albums are great though.

— E aka Fidel Cashflow Sep 5, 12:39 AM
Rafi,

Oh shit, my bad on that one. I aint even know there were that many writers on this site. Straight up, I thought it was you who wrote it. Lol. I really should start reading the byline, eh? My fault with that one.

— Incilin Sep 5, 12:55 AM
I agree that Lord Willin was a much better album, though I can’t quite explain why. HHNF seemed lifeless to me somehow. Lord Willin is spotty and even at its best I’d contend it isn’t essential, but it has its merits.

— Tray Sep 5, 02:17 AM
What an excellent post.

— Perttu Sep 5, 04:40 AM
Fantastic post. Lord Willin definitely felt like a more natural album than HHNF which was as reactionary as they come. I wouldn’t say that one is dramatically better than the other though.

— Sach Sep 5, 12:05 PM
Hell Hath No Fury > Lord Willin. (just my opinion)
. . . Uhmm, I personally think that the term crack-coke movement is trite. When some emcees began rapping about weed, there were opportunists that followed that direction. Calling it a movement is corny, there was no conscious effort, just a bunch of followers and young men trying to cash in on a fad. Is the Stop Snitchin a movement? Nah, some one just made money off t-shirts that addressed a sentiment shared by many Americans.
I thought Clipse stood out because they are actually talented emcees. The simple fact that they acknowledge who they are and what they do actually does not separate them. Their peers validate and justify their “actions” in their unique flavor. “You just have to feel it to understand . . . it’s that deep ghetto pain.” The Clipse elaboration and justification in rhyme form is top notch but I think it is their abilities as story tellers that separates them from Jeezy, Ross, etc.

— Vee Sep 5, 12:29 PM
i can’t get with this idea that the Neps’ production on Lord Willin’ is superior to other stuff they’ve done. yeah, “Grindin’s” different, but so much of this you could tell is Neptunes from a mile away. not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just kinda retarded how certain people (not sayin’ the dude who wrote this) shit on most everything else they’ve done and turn around and say they like this. and “I’m Not You” may be “unique,” but that beat ain’t that good. it’s like a marginally better version of “P.I.M.P.” before 50 Cent blew up.

also, Inspiration > this. call me crazy.

— T.R.E.Y. Sep 6, 02:40 AM
Brilliant post!
Young Boy is my tone. It’s a superior album in every way to HHNF and one of the only records that I like the Neptunes production.

— Jason Sep 6, 03:56 AM
Great analysis Abe.

I think the Neptunes were more willing to experiment because they were producing the entire project vs. a hit single.

Their re-interpretations of Southern Bounce on “Familay Freestyle” and also the sparse minimalism of “Grinding” and “Virginia” make Lord Willin’ a must-have for any aspiring producers.

While “Hell Hath…” is autobiographical at times I think what is missing was the personal depth.

It feels like there should have been an album in between “Lord Willin’” and “Hall Hath…” that shows the transition from low-level neighborhood dealer to shot caller.

The skills and visual word-play were still present but the grit and dirt that is on the hands of the Clipse on album 1 is absent on album 2. And it’s that attention to detail that rounds a nicer and stickier narrative.

— Thadd Clark Sep 6, 02:54 PM