Clipse were forced to pay a seven figure sum to get out of their Def Jam record contract.
It was previously revealed by Pusha T that the duo had parted ways with the storied record label over a dispute regarding their new album Let God Sort Em Out.
However, Pusha’s longtime manager, Steven Victor, has revealed that Def Jam forced the brothers to cough up a significant amount of money to break their deal.
Speaking to Billboard, he said: “They said, ‘Find another deal, and let’s figure out a business.’ They didn’t drop us. They were like, ‘Pay us this money’ — which was an exorbitant amount of money, a shit ton of money — ‘and we’ll let you out the deal.’ That’s what happened. We paid them the money, an insane amount of money. It wasn’t, like, $200,000. It was a lot of money for an artist to come up with. They bought themselves out of the deal.”
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Victor then confirmed that the dollar amount was in the seven figures range.
Speaking to GQ, Pusha revealed how his relationship with Def Jam went south and it had everything to do with Kendrick Lamar’s guest verse on the album.
He said: “They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing. And then they wanted me to take the record off. And so, after a month of not doing it, Steve Gawley, the lawyer over there was like, ‘We’ll just drop the Clipse.’ But that can’t work because I’m still there [solo]. But [if] you let us all go… ”
It was also revealed that Def Jam were concerned about the optics of two of Drake’s arch rivals teaming up on a track while his lawsuit against UMG was ongoing.
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As a result, Clipse and Pusha departed the label and eventually signed with Roc Nation to release their highly anticipated reunion album.
Def Jam and UMG are yet to comment on Pusha’s allegations or Victor’s comments about the nature of the deal.
Last week, Clipse finally announced the release date for Let God Sort Em Out.
In a social media post and cinematic trailer, the brothers announced that fans can expect the album relatively soon with it arriving on July 11.
