Free Is the Best Price for Things

We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol 3: The Spirit of Competition (We Just Think We Better)

While it is still to be determined what impact artists (such as Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and now Pearl Jam) giving their album album away for free online will have on the record industry, there are still more and more artists following that path. Hip Hop has always thrived on the mixtape (free today to get cheddah tomorrow), and while Lil' Wayne may be most prolific, it's Clipse that make it an art form. Not surprisingly, over tracks once belonging to Kanye ("Good Morning"), Jay-Z ("Roc Boys"), Obie Trice ("Cry Now"), and others on this latest collection, Pusha T and Malice inform us that they did, in fact, deal drugs in the past. That they can essentially repeat this notion over and over (see: We Got It 4 Cheap Vols I-II, Lord Willin', Hell Hath No Fury) and still drop lines that make the whitest boy in the room say, 'Cot Damn', is evidence that these mixtapes are not simply thrown together on a whim. The Clipse are as much poets as they were ever pushers, and each line they drop is clearly accounted for as thoroughly as each key they sold.

Witness Pusha spitting fire (from "Re-Up Gang Intro"):
"No mentions of the best without mentionin' the 4
The tales of movin' powder like the Yeti's the allure.
The writers scream more yet they don't run to the store
With all this money in the streets to write a verse is like a chore.
Ignore the lies that they tell
Under my cuticle proof the pos' that I sell.
Guess life in jail's just a manicure away
Well I don't feel like gettin' my nails done today."

The spirit of competition has Malice not wanting to be outdone by his partner. And so (on "Cry Now"):
"We the R-E-U-P Gang, that's us brah
Yes I said Gang although it's a faux pas
Funnelin' the cane, how we do is not folklore
Bitch in Vera Wang, and the kid's got gold card
Cook the heroin till it's black like Bopa
Ill with the composition, I'm Mozart
You don't want this fig' to start spittin' so don't start
Not to mention I'm everywhere like Gold Starr
Prolific like W.E.B. Dubois
Seventeen in a nickel 'n I'll fuck witcha boy"

Oh, did we mention that the Gang is giving the whole album away for free? When have you ever been able to re-up for free? Go get it here.

If you need to feed the monkey, here is the mp3 for "Cry Now":

Make friends at http://www.myspace.com/clipse.

-J2