Without My Compass

Clipse “The Birds Don’t Sing”

Pusha T and Malice have been so relentlessly focused on rapping about selling cocaine and presenting themselves as brilliant supervillains through their careers that opening their first album together as Clipse in 16 years with something as vulnerable and true as “The Birds Don’t Sing” is genuinely startling. It’s a song about the brothers losing their father, and under relatively mundane circumstances: They’re middle aged men, their dad gets sick, and he’s suddenly gone. They feel regret about where they left off with him, they reflect on their good fortune of having a good, supportive father. The typical Clipse kayfabe is dropped entirely – don’t worry, they get right back to it as the record goes along – but for this song, all their considerable skill as rappers and lyricists is redirected towards fully being themselves and letting the listener in. I think their dad would be very proud. But of course, he already was. As Malice reveals at the end of his verse, “I love my two sons” was the code to his phone.

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