Clipse Preview Kendrick Lamar’s Explosive Verse on “Chains & Whips” Amid Label Fallout

Clipse have given fans an early taste of what’s to come on their long-awaited reunion album Let God Sort Em Out — and it features none other than Kendrick Lamar delivering a razor-sharp verse that’s already making waves. The snippet of their new track, Chains & Whips, was shared during a rooftop session with Pharrell Williams, offering a bold preview of the highly anticipated project.

Kendrick’s verse doesn’t hold back. In the clip, the Compton rapper addresses the current state of the genre with piercing lines:
“Let’s be clear, Hip Hop died again / Half of my profits may go to Rakim / How many Judases done let me down? / But fuck it, the West mine’s, we right now.”

The raw, unapologetic energy of the verse has reignited conversations about Hip Hop’s direction and the growing tensions among its top-tier artists. But the collaboration hasn’t come without consequences.

According to Clipse’s Pusha T, Kendrick’s appearance on the track sparked serious conflict with their former label, Def Jam. In a recent interview with GQ, Pusha revealed that the label requested Lamar’s verse be censored — a request he flatly refused. When Def Jam pushed further to have the track removed altogether, the standoff reached a breaking point. “They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing,” he said. “And then they wanted me to take the record off. And so, after a month of not doing it, Steve Gawley, the lawyer over there was like, ‘We’ll just drop the Clipse.’”

With Pusha still signed to the label as a solo artist, the move would have been complicated — unless the duo bought their way out. And that’s exactly what they did.

Def Jam’s hesitation reportedly stemmed from the optics of Clipse teaming up with Kendrick, especially amid his very public feud with Drake. With Drake in the middle of a lawsuit involving UMG, the label feared backlash from having two of his biggest rivals on the same track under their umbrella.

Their longtime manager, Steven Victor, confirmed to Billboard that Clipse paid a massive sum to terminate their contract and retain control over the album. “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 shit ton 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.”

Victor later confirmed the buyout was in the seven-figure range.

With their Def Jam chapter behind them, Clipse have now partnered with Roc Nation to release Let God Sort Em Out. The album is shaping up to be one of the year’s most talked-about drops, with “Chains & Whips” already proving that the duo aren’t afraid to push boundaries — no matter the cost.