After making quite the splash on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and on select G.O.O.D Fridays tracks in the recent, little brother Thornton is back for the first time with his long awaited solo mixtape, Fear of God. Venturing out sans the help of his older brother and long time rhyme partner Malice, Pusha T does not disappoint in his solo debut. In it we find an even more self assured neighborhood emcee spitting over some of the most epic production he has had the pleasure of delivering over, striking the fear of god into the hearts of other rappers through his virtuosic lyrical skills and bravado.

Much in the spirit of the Clipse, the intro is a straight Scarface quote, and as you may have probably guessed, there is one associate that features heavily on almost every track: cocaine. For any seasoned Clipse fan, not only is this not a surprise, it is a welcome pleasure, as it is Terrence’s ability to cleverly spin drug game narratives that has built his faithful audience, which spans much further than his native Virginia Beach area. His choice of beats to “freestyle” over reflect this, as he chooses hustler’s anthems like Weezy’s ‘Money On My Mind’, Jay-Z’s ‘Can I Live’ and of course the extremely appropriately titled Bun B cut ‘Cooking It Down’.

A few tracks stand out heavily, the first “single” and complex street record ‘My God’ is a perfect first track and sets the serious, introspective tone of the whole record. The second track, “I Still Wanna Rock” has Pusha irreverently proclaiming his desire to still be selling kilos over what is probably the hardest beat on the mixtape, aided by Rick Ross and longtime Re-Up Gang collaborator Ab-Liva. With lines such as “You wanna know what pain is? Flushing 2 bricks and trying to have a ni*&a strain it out the drainage…” it is difficult not to be entertained.

Pusha benefits from both the production genius of Pharell Williams and Kanye West, and as one can imagine, P sounds as great as the Clipse ever did over Neptunes beats, delivering a great violent funky track including rinky-dink piano chords shared with 50 Cent on “Raid”. He also managed to grab the “Touch It” beat from Yeezy, which while being a fun listen, could have been more than just an amusing graphic ode to promiscuous encounters.

‘Alone In Vegas’, one of the better and perhaps most interesting tracks on the opus has Pusha waxing more philosophical, which reveals his conscience (to quote his Funk Flex freestyle, “Malice found religion, Tony found prison, I’m still trying to find my way up out this fuckin’ kitchen”), making all the coke bragging more complex. One hears that he fully realizes the consequences and pitfalls of a fast life, and newly, of fame.

With Fear of God, Pusha T has shown that he can stand on his own (not that an entirely Kanye West produced upcoming album will hurt). He’s also shown that maybe the absence of the other half of the Clipse has pushed—the pun is entirely intended—and elevated his game to a level he may never have achieved without being on his own. He is now able to add substance to his nonchalant disrespectful wordplay. In short, “the theme is coke, but lines are uplifting”. Yuuuuurkh!

words Hadrien Turner
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