In SHIFTER’s Best of 2025, our journalist roundtable has named the Clipse album “Let God Sort Em Out” as SHIFTER’s Album of the Year.
Our process included a first round where our participating journalists completed a form where they could nominate the potential nominees. From the nomination form, a final voting form was created where our participating journalists voted on the winners from the list of nominees. The journalists completed the forms individually and were not able to see the other journalists’ answers.
Finalists: Let God Sort Em Out (Clipse), DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (Bad Bunny), The Art of Loving (Olivia Dean), Swag (Justin Bieber), Some Sexy Songs 4 U (Drake and PartyNextDoor)
2025 was a slow year for hip-hop. In November, the headlines were grim. For the first time in 35 years, the Billboard Top 40 had no hip-hop or rap songs. Yes, it was partly due to a rule change at Billboard, but even in 2023, hip-hop struggled to produce a #1 record until Doja Cat’s “Past The Town Red” was released in August of that year.
Some blame it on the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef, after which nothing was the same. Pun intended. It took all the attention, whether from fans and hip-hop media, and made it hard for other artists to cut through with new music. Some stellar projects fell under the radar. Others blame it on Drake no longer handing out hits to his colleagues, while others attribute it to record labels cutting marketing budgets for hip-hop.
Either way, one of the hip-hop acts that cut through the noise was Clipse. The long-awaited reunion of the brothers from Virginia Beach made Let God Sort Em Out one of the more highly anticipated hip-hop albums in recent years. Adding to the anticipation was their reunion with Pharrell, who was sole producer and executive producer on the project. The album saw the duo return to form telling stories about life in the streets, while being vulnerable as they mourned the passing of their parents on “The Birds Don’t Sing”.
Sales and streaming numbers
The album, which debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Independent and Vinyl Albums charts, and #2 on the Top Rap Albums chart, had impressive first-week numbers with 118,000 equivalent album units, including 58,000 pure album sales and 77.49 million streams. They did all of this independently after parting ways with Def Jam over a Kendrick Lamar feature in a seven figure settlement.
Impact
The album arrived at a time when hip-hop, which was feeling a bit flat, needed a shot in the arm. With Atlanta hip-hop, including trap music, on a bit of a decline because of legal issues, someone needed to step up and fill the void.
But perhaps the biggest impact the album had was proving definitively that hip-hop is no longer a young man’s game. The album was the first in a number of album releases from “mature” rappers like Mobb Deep, Slick Rick, Freddie Gibbs, Big L, Alchemist/Larry June/2Chainz,, Ghostface Killa, De La Soul, Eric Sermon, and Nas/DJ Premiere.
Innovative Sound and Visuals
But Clipse weren’t just a nostalgia act. They separated themselves from their peers with a sound that was still current, thanks to Pharrell who is always ahead of his time sonically, and pens that are still some of the sharpest in the game. Combine this with creative and cinematic visuals and we can see why they’ve been able to appeal to both hip-hop heads who grew up banging the “Grindin'” beat on cafeteria tables at school and a whole new generation of fans.
They also crossed over into the world of fashion through their affiliation with Pharrell, putting their stamp on culture outside of music. In the end, they easily established themselves as an act that will continue to be relevant for years to come.
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