Just about 20 years ago this year, Virginia Beach brothers Malice and Pusha T — aka Clipse — released their debut album, Lord Willin’, via Pharrell Williams’ Star Trak and Arista Records. However, longtime heads know that this was actually the duo’s second chance at making their first impression after a previous deal at Elektra Records resulted in the 1999 album Exclusive Audio Footage — an album that was shelved after the poor response to the lead single, “The Funeral,” resulting in the end of the duo’s record deal. Now, a couple of decades later, it seems things worked out okay.
Until now, though, only a handful of people had ever heard that first album, which never made it to stores. And while you could get ahold of it relatively easily due to leaked promotional versions that found their way online, as of today, you can simply open your favorite DSP. That’s right; Exclusive Audio Footage is now available for streaming — legally — for the first time in nearly 25 years. According to 2DopeBoyz, the album is mostly unchanged (likely thanks to producers The Neptunes’ approach of building beats from scratch rather than sampling), meaning you’re likely to hear references to Pusha’s old rap name, Terrar, and reworked versions of beats such as the one from Jadakiss’ “Knock Yourself Out” on the second track, “Hear Me Out.”
The update is sure to fuel the long-simmering rumors of a possible reunion of the sibling act, which has been on unofficial hiatus since 2010, with Malice going Christian rap as No Malice — his last album was Let the Dead Bury the Dead in 2017 — and Pusha continuing as the number-one coke rapper, who recently went No. 1 with his fourth studio album It’s Almost Dry (which No Malice also appears on). Those rumors were helped along by two more recent collaborations on albums from Kanye West and their designer friend and DJ, Nigo.
You can hear it for yourself via Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal.