Pusha T, one of hip-hop’s most feared and respected diss-track specialists, says that era of his career is officially over.
In a new conversation with Consequence, the Clipse rapper made it clear he’s moving beyond lyrical warfare and has no desire to revisit the back-and-forth culture that once fueled some of rap’s most infamous feuds.
Pusha, who has delivered some of the most devastating diss records of the last decade, said he’s simply not interested in competing through disses anymore.
“I’ve kind of been through that chapter and I’m over it,” he explained. “I’m somewhere right now where I don’t even want to make music with other people, nevertheless [have] anybody else in my music or be the focus of my music.”
Instead, he said his focus is entirely on the elevated artistry he and No Malice are crafting as a group: “What we’re doing right here [with Clipse] is, to me, so next level. I feel like the taste level is above everything else.”
Pusha added that he doesn’t even want to exist in the “world” that comes with diss records: the ego clashes, the constant commentary, and the never-ending cycle of responses.
“I don’t like even the world of the people, of the back and forth,” he said. “If I don’t see eye to eye with you, there’s probably things I don’t want to be there about.”
Though Pusha has delivered some of the clearest generally-acknowledged winners in modern rap beef, including the scorched-earth “The Story of Adidon” against Drake, he believes the culture around diss records has changed for the worse.
“It’s kind of dead to me,” he admitted. “It’s the ransom of what a diss track used to bring: there was a clear winner. Somebody would really bow out and then that’s it — the last man standing.”
Today’s ecosystem, he says, is flooded with never-ending comments instead of resolution.
“Now it’s just a whole bunch of noise," said Pusha. "Even after we find winners, it’s still noise. And it’s like, man, then what’s it for?”