For this year’s update of our ongoing Greatest Pop Star by Year project, Billboard will be counting down our editorial staff picks for the 10 Greatest Pop Stars of 2025, starting on Monday (Jan. 19). Before that, we revealed our Honorable Mentions for 2025 on Thursday, and our Rookie of the Year earlier today. Now, we salute the artist who returned to the mainstream in the most resounding and impactful way this year: Virginia hip-hop duo the Clipse, which reunited with its longtime producer, linked up with a whole lot of friends old and new, and had an absolute comeback year for the ages.

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Listen to our Greatest Pop Stars podcast discussion about Clipse’s Comeback of the Year campaign here.

Sixteen years is an eternity in rap. That’s how long the Clipse went between 2009’s Til the Casket Drops and the Thornton brothers’ resurrection album Let God Sort Em Out, which landed in July. Malice left the group to pursue his faith, and Pusha T enjoyed a dominant solo run in the 2010s. But all roads led back to Virginia Beach for a fruitful 2025 reunion — one that not just re-confirmed the duo as all-time marksmen, but showed they could still be leaders in the contemporary landscape, even as 25-year veterans.  

There were baby steps over the years that eventually lured Malice back to Clipse. First, Ye (formerly Kanye West) reunited the duo in 2019 on Jesus Is King standout “Use This Gospel.” Then came a 2022 Clipse appearance on Nigo’s I Know NIGO! project, which was followed by Push recruiting his brother to join him on It’s Almost Dry closer “I Pray for You” a month later.

The first sign of new Clipse music came during Pharrell’s first fashion show as Louis Vuitton’s new men’s creative director in June 2023, which played “Chains & Whips” sans Kendrick Lamar as the Thornton brothers walked the runway. 

Signs continue to signal a reunion in 2024 when Let God Sort Em Out’s tearful opener, “The Birds Don’t Sing,” a tribute to Push and Clipse’s late parents, was premiered during another LV fashion show. The duo also sat down for interviews with Vulture and Rolling Stone, setting the stage for a blockbuster return.

Well over a decade since Malice left the group in 2010 amid feelings of being “cheated” by the business side of the music industry, Clipse was back — and the duo announced Let God Sort Em Out in May. 

The Thornton brothers couldn’t call it a proper comeback without joining forces with fellow Virginia native Pharrell, who had a hand in providing the futuristic soundscape to every Clipse album to date as one half of The Neptunes. Clipse spent weeks at a time in Paris while recording LGSEO at the LV headquarters across the pond with P to pick up where they left off. 

“Ace Trumpets” served as the album’s cinematic lead single in May, and Clipse opened up about the label drama surrounding its anticipated LP in June, as Pusha T explained that they were paid seven figures to get out of their Def Jam deal, where Push was signed as a solo artist. The label allegedly attempted to censor Kendrick Lamar’s assist on “Chains & Whips,” but the Clipse refused to sacrifice the integrity of Let God Sort Em Out and took their talents to Roc Nation distribution for LGSEO, while deiding to forgo another label deal and release the album themselves.

What followed was a masterclass in rolling out the red carpet for a much-anticipated new album, which came with some help from Pusha T’s longtime manager, Steven Victor, and expert publicist Gabe Tesoriero. 

Clipse sat down with seemingly everyone who mattered in media for engaging conversations, while tapping into different pockets of culture, ranging from The New York Times’ Popcast to The Joe Budden Podcast, GQ and The Breakfast Club. “We don’t make a record and hide behind it, we get in front of it,” Malice told GQ of welcoming dialogue on just about any subject, when other rappers might shy away. 

Notable fashion and art collaborations that felt authentic to the Clipse ethos followed with Adidas, Denim Tears, Carhartt, Jeremy Sperling, Verdy and KAWS, who designed Clipse’s last album’s cover art in 2009, and brought his signature illustrative hands to the cover of Let God Sort Em Out. 

Clipse invented a sub-genre of opulent horror with the arrival of the “So Be It” music video in June. Directed by Hannan Hussain, the Hitchcock-inspired black-and-white visual matched the chilling raps from the Thornton brothers, which included Pusha revealing his disdain for Travis Scott, and amplified Pharrell’s menacing production — his strongest on the album.

Nostalgia can be intoxicating, but Let God Sort Em Out wasn’t a return to the XXL jersey and Nextel era when Clipse first made its presence felt in the early ‘00s, but a rewriting of the rules for veteran rappers.

Let God Sort Em Out was released on July 11, crystallizing the rap album of the year hype surrounding the LP. Push and Malice proved to be sharper than Valyrian steel in the booth, even at 48 and 53 years old, respectively. Of course, there was plenty of luxury coke raps with “kilos in my Maybach” and Push scoffing at driving an Audi à la Jay-Z with BMW X5s on “Show You How,” but the killer mentality was complemented by growth, evolved perspective and maturity. “If you listen to a Clipse record and you don’t feel like going to buy a coupe, we failed you,” Pharrell told Billboard.

Clipse invited a range of respected rappers into the fold to spar with, including A-listers Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, the Creator. The latter of whom is a day-one Clipster, who says he re-did his verse on “P.O.V.” “79 to 100 times” until he felt it was worthy of standing alongside Push, Malice and Pharrell. Genre legends like Nas made an appearance, while Clipse co-signed newer acts such as Stove God Cooks and reunited with an old friend in the Re-Up Gang’s Ab-Liva. 

While the album arrived to critical acclaim, LGSEO blew commercial expectations out of the water. The project debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 behind the Jackboys and Justin Bieber with 118,000 album-equivalent units earned. The sum included 58,000 units in pure album sales, while 59,000 came from streaming equivalent album units, an enviably even split for a longtime act. It was the second top 10 album for Clipse, matching Lord Willin’s 2002 peak of No. 4 and rebounding from the No. 41 peak of Casket in 2009. Clipse also earned its biggest streaming week ever, with the set generating 77.49 million on-demand official streams, per Luminate. 

Meanwhile, six out of the 13 tracks from the album debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated July 26. “Chains & Whips” with Kendrick gave Clipse its highest-charting entry as a lead act (No. 42) since “Grindin’” rewired rap fans’ brains in 2002. 

When Clipse and Pharrell set out to construct the comeback album, one of the goals in the back of Pusha T’s mind was to disprove that hip-hop was a “young man’s sport.” Push wanted to show that the Clipse brand of luxury street rap could penetrate culture while bucking the trend of Gen-Z’s melodic trap and rage rap dominating the mainstream. 

“I’ve always looked at rap and other genres, rock specifically, and I’ve never liked how rap always had the age ceiling where everyone else didn’t,” Pusha said to Billboard. “I’ve personally always wanted to make it my business to crack that ceiling, and I think the Clipse album 1,000% .” (“Martin Scorsese made The Irishman not too long ago,” Pharrell echoed.) 

Clipse took a victory lap with a celebratory North American tour in August, reuniting with fans that Push said ranged from “16 to 60” in the raucous crowd. The trek’s highlight came in Los Angeles, when Kendrick Lamar popped out for a surprise guest appearance to perform their “Chains & Whips” collaboration. 

The Virginia-bred duo made history with a pit stop in Italy in September, when Clipse became the first rappers to perform at the Vatican at the Grace for the World concert. Pusha and Malice joined John Legend to perform their poignant LGSEO opener “The Birds Don’t Sing” in holy territory. “It’s overdue and past time that people understand that hip-hop belongs everywhere,” Malice said to VIBE.

A Grammy run was always the goal for Clipse, and the Recording Academy responded with five nominations for Let God Sort Em Out, including a crown jewel nomination in the album of the year category, along with best rap album, “So Be It” for best music video, “The Birds Don’t Sing” for best rap song and “Chains & Whips” for best rap performance. 

While the nominations feel like a win worth celebrating, Clipse subscribes to the sports-world adage that it don’t mean a thing without a ring — and the duo plans to walk away with some hardware on Grammy night. As Malice candidly put it, “You don’t play the game just to get a participation trophy.”

Whether or not they win the chip on Music’s Biggest Night, the way Clipse executed its gameplan in 2025 is nothing short of inspirational. Malice and Push raised, if not burst all the way through, the commercial and critical ceiling for hip-hop acts in their 40s, 50 and beyond — proving that even rappers who aren’t household-name celebrities can still have superstar-type impact for as long as they’ve got the skill, the drive and the discipline. Their playbook will be studied by peers and followers for decades to come. 

Find our Rookie of the Year essay for Olivia Dean here, find our Clipse Comeback of the Year podcast here, and check back for our top 10 starting on Monday (Jan. 19)!