''Til the Casket Drops'' is the fourth and final

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

by the American hip hop duo

Clipse Clipse, also known as The Clipse, is an American hip hop duo, chiefly active from 1994 to 2010. It consists of brothers Gene "No Malice" and Terrence "Pusha T" Thornton. Pusha T was known as Terrar during the group's early years, while No Mal ...

, released in the United States on December 8, 2009, by Re-Up, Star Trak and

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

. It debuted on number 46 on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of ar ...

, selling 31,000 copies in its very first week of availability. The album received generally positive reviews from critics. It is their final project as

, prior to their split and solo ventures.

Overview

Following their critically acclaimed '' Hell Hath No Fury'', Clipse left

Jive Records Jive Records was an American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary to the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, ...

. They managed to secure a new deal with

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...

, and proceeded to work on their new album. Prior to the release of the album, a mixtape called ''Road to Till the Casket Drops'', was made available on December 1, 2008. They also started their own clothing line named "Play Cloths". The album was released on December 8, 2009. The album's cover art work was designed by the artist

Kaws Brian Donnelly (born November 4, 1974), known professionally as Kaws (stylized as KAWS), is an American artist and designer. His work includes repeated use of a cast of figurative characters and motifs, some dating back to the beginning of his c ...

. Featured guests include

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

Keri Hilson Keri Lynn Hilson (born December 5, 1982) is an American R&B singer, songwriter and actress. She was born and raised in Decatur, Georgia and spent most of her youth working with producer Anthony Dent as a songwriter and background vocalist for ...

Pharrell Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom h ...

, Cam'ron,

Ab-Liva The Re-Up Gang are an American hip hop group formed in 2004, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The group was formed by Pusha T and Malice, brothers and members of Virginia-based hip hop duo Clipse, alongside Philadelphia-based rappers Ab-Liva and ...

and

Yo Gotti Mario Sentell Giden Mims (born May 19, 1981), known professionally as Yo Gotti, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record executive. In 1996, Gotti released his debut album ''Youngsta's On a Come Up'' under the alias Lil Yo. He went on to re ...

. For the first time, Clipse reached out for producers other than

The Neptunes The Neptunes are an American songwriting and production duo composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1992. Williams often provides additional vocals on records and appears in the duo's music videos, ...

. Producers for the album also Sean C and LV,

DJ Khalil Khalil Abdul-Rahman Hazzard (born October 16, 1973), professionally known as DJ Khalil, is an American music producer and DJ from Los Angeles. He is the instrumental half of the hip hop duo Self Scientific (along with rapper Chace Infinite) an ...

and

Chin Injeti Pranam "Chin" Injeti (born April 9, 1973 in India) is a Canadian singer, musician, and music producer. He got his start as a founding member of Juno Award-winning group Bass is Base. He frequently collaborates with producer DJ Khalil; together th ...

. This is the final Clipse album, prior to their split in 2010.

Pusha T Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper, songwriter and record executive. He rose to prominence as one-half of the hip hop duo Clipse, which was mainly active from 1994 to 20 ...

would go on to embark a successful solo career with

G.O.O.D. Music GOOD Music (also known simply as GOOD, stylized as G.O.O.D. Music; a backronym for Getting Out Our Dreams) is an American record label founded by rapper Kanye West in 2004. The label signed an exclusive long-term worldwide label agreement with t ...

, while Malice would go on to convert to Christianity. He would later change his stage name to

No Malice Gene Elliott Thornton Jr. (born August 18, 1972), better known by his stage name No Malice (formerly known as Malicious and later Malice), is an American rapper from Virginia Beach, Virginia. He is best known for being one half of hip hop duo C ...

, and drop his solo debut ''

Hear Ye Him ''Hear Ye Him'' is the debut solo studio album by American rapper No Malice. The album was released independently on August 18, 2013, by Reinvision. The album features guest appearances from Ab-Liva, Pusha T, Fam-Lay and Jaeson Ma among others. O ...

'' in 2013.

Singles

A promotional single, " Kinda Like a Big Deal" was released for the album. It features

. Three official singles were released: " I'm Good" featuring

, followed by "All Eyes on Me" featuring

and "Popular Demand (Popeyes)" featuring the New York rapper Cam'ron.

Critical reception

''Til The Casket Drops'' was met with generally positive reviews. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the album received an average of 64 which indicated "generally favorable reviews". Andy Kellman of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

noted "There’s plenty of dazzling wordplay related to coke dealing and showing off, but the album carries a more redemptive tone and a higher level of self-awareness".

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

editor Ian Cohen gave the album a score of 6.2, stating "Til the Casket Drops awkwardly vacillates between confidence and complacency, between sneering at perceived competition and smarting at perceived and possibly self-made slights". NME editor Emily Mackay criticized the album saying "since their last opus sold so poorly, they are chasing dollar here with a Neptunes assisted move toward big, slick choonage". NME gave the album a score of 3.5 stars out of 5. However, Entertainment Weekly received the album well with a score of A−, saying "Til the Casket Drops might not be quite as spellbinding as their last one, but they’re still operating on a level of cleverness that few of their peers can match".

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

gave the album a score of 3 stars out of 4. Editor Mikael Wood wrote "On Til the Casket Drops, siblings Gene "Malice" Thornton and Terrence "Pusha T" Thornton resume their collaboration with production juggernaut the Neptunes. But this time, the Virginia duo lower their standards on a handful of songs in pursuit of the hits that eluded them the last time". Pusha T eventually disowned the album, later stating in an interview with Elliott Wilson from Tidal in 2021 that "I hate it. I hate it. And when a song comes on, like “I’m Good,” man, this was a little bit of a bop. Hate it.“. He also added: “Only thing I love about it is the artwork, and that’s because

did it. That’s it.“

Commercial performance

The album entered the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart at number 46, and the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

at number 9 selling 31,000 copies in its first week. The album sold 62,000 copies within the first month of being released.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

''Til the Casket Drops''
at

{{Authority control 2009 albums Clipse albums Star Trak Entertainment albums Albums produced by DJ Khalil Albums produced by the Neptunes