TILL THE CASKET DROPS (Columbia)

Release Date:Nov. 10
The Skinny:Apparently, brothers Gene (a.k.a., Malice) and Terrence (Pusha T) Thornton believe that bestowing hip-hop with elegantly intricate lyrics, masterfully voiced flows, challenging but compelling musical backdrops, and the dopest cocaine metaphors since Steely Dan, entitle them to reap the spoils of massive hit records. And maybe it should. But life, and certainly hip-hop, has never been about proper payoffs. So here the Thorntons are, on a new label, packing another repeatedly delayed album, with continued worries about commercial viability, even thought the first single, "Kinda Like a Big Deal," featuring Kanye West, is a ruggedly flossy marvel (second single, the cheesily slight Neptunes production "I'm Good" is another matter). Although it certainly won't unite "the hood and the hipsters," as the Clipse have daydreamed, Till the Casket Drops will be the best hip-hop album you'll hear in 2009 that morons will view as kinda like a big fail because some overcompensating bougie program director decided he'd rather flog Gucci Mane.
Fast Fact: Though Rick Rubin signed Clipse to Columbia in 2007, and spent time in the studio with the duo, none of the songs on Till the Casket Drops were produced by the bearded spiritualist.
LISTEN: Clipse, "Kind Of A Big Deal"

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