I waited a long time for Pusha T “Wrath Of Caine” – years in fact. I remember back when “NoMalice” was just “Malice”, the Re-Up Gang consisted of all four members, and Pusha was part the Clipse and not the G.O.O.D music marketing machine™.
Those days came and went, but Pusha always remained consistently interesting and consistently brilliant. Murdering MCs on their own tracks, dropping magic wherever magic fell.
He retained integrity even after signing to a major label, and pairing up with the obvious charlatan Rick Ross more than once. Not an easy task.
He seems like a nice guy in interviews too, like easy-going and care free. He can see the line between hip hop as a life style and hip hop as an art form.
Pusha T “Wrath Of Caine” mixtape
I love the Clipse, I love the Re-Up Gang, I love Pusha. That’s why it pains me to say that his newest mixtape “Wrath Of Caine” is fucking awful.
It’s a shallow and uninspired production. There’s a Jamaican flavour to everything which just doesn’t sit well along P’s lyricism. Not to mention Antony B and High Priest of the Antipop Consortium perfected it a decade ago. It’s just not relevant or edgy any more. If it was only the aesthetics that were misjudged on the record I could forgive it, but everything is off.
The tracks are boring and horribly produced, the lyrics are lost in compression artifacts and digital clipping. Even the artwork is shit – five minutes of an intern using photoshop for the first time. It’s a mess. Pusha sounds as if he’s going through the motions, utterly uninspired and boring. He shows none of the wit, confidence or swagger we’ve taken for granted all this time.
“Pain” isn’t on it. “Exodus 23:1” isn’t on it. “New God Flow” isn’t on it.
Instead we get amateur backing tracks, plastered with bad takes of leftover verses. I can only hope that this is a case of P holding back the good stuff for the album, but now I’m not sure.
The best track on “Wrath Of Caine” is Blocka. I didn’t much like Blocka.
EDIT: Actually, in the cold hard light of day, and after adequate time to fully digest the thing – it’s not that bad at all. It’s not what I hoped for, especially the beats and production, but on the whole it’s not that bad. I don’t do the Jamaican thing, and Pusha is sounding a little formulaic now, but I can still roll with it. You know, if push comes to shove (You can take that line Terrence, royalty free.)
MILLI MILLIONS IN THE CEILING MILLI MILLIONS IN THE CEILING MILLI MILLIONS IN THE CEILING MILLI MILLIONS IN THE CEILING / CHOPPA CHOPPAS IN THE CLOSET CHOPPA CHOPPAS IN THE CLOSET CHOPPA CHOPPAS IN THE CLOSET CHOPPA CHOPPAS IN THE CLOSET