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In a new interview with Frazier Tharpe, for GQ, Pusha T said that he departed his longtime label home, Def Jam Recordings, over the company’s apparent reluctance to release a new Clipse song featuring a guest verse from Kendrick Lamar. “They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing,” he claimed. “And then they wanted me to take the record off.” Ultimately, the parties agreed to go their separate ways, according to Pusha T, and Clipse’s new comeback album, Let God Sort Em Out, is being released in partnership with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
Pusha T’s longtime manager, Steven Victor, also discussed the rapper’s Def Jam departure in a new interview with Billboard. “Yeah, I don’t know what their concern is,” Victor said. “But they were like, ‘There’s a line here; we think it’s controversial; [Kendrick] needs to change it, or we’re not putting it out.’ We’re not going to ask him to change the verse. You guys are wrong. Stop looking at this this way. None of this makes any sense.”ss action waiver and arbitration provisions), and acknowledge our privacy policy.
According to Victor, Pusha T “had like three albums left” on his deal with Def Jam. In addition, he also claimed that the musician “had to pay seven figures to get out of the deal.”
Representatives for Def Jam Recordings and its parent company, Universal Music Group (UMG), did not respond to Pitchfork’s requests for comment.
Universal Music Group is facing active litigation from Drake, who claims that UMG “waged an unrelenting campaign” to promote Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” the hit diss track that Drake believes is defamatory. Both Drake and Lamar also release music through UMG-owned labels, Republic Records and Interscope Records, respectively.
Labels owned by UMG released or co-released many of the songs in the Lamar-Drake feud of 2024. For Lamar, those officially sanctioned tracks were: “Like That,” “Euphoria,” “Meet the Grahams,” and “Not Like Us.” On Drake’s side of things, he released “Push Ups” and “Family Matters” in partnership with Republic.
Years before the Kendrick Lamar and Drake imbroglio, Pusha T shared his own vicious diss track against the Canadian hip-hop superstar. Notably, Pusha T did not go through his label to drop “The Story of Adidon,” instead posting it on SoundCloud. Speaking with Billboard, Steven Victor said that Pusha T shared his song independently, in part, “to avoid” objections from Def Jam and UMG.
The new Clipse song featuring Kendrick Lamar is called “Chains & Whips,” and it played during one of Pharrell Williams’ runway shows for Louis Vuitton. It is currently unclear if the song (with or without a Kendrick Lamar verse) will appear on Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out, which gets released on July 11.
Lizzo has responded to fat-shamers online.
The Grammy-winning artist went on her official Instagram page to call out people making jokes about her body.
“Today I came across a fat joke about me in 2025 and it was going viral,” she wrote alongside a photo of herself relaxing in a yellow and black snakeskin bikini.
“It was a silly joke and they were laughing at me simply because I’m fat. Let me remind everyone to never let anyone make you feel bad for what you decide to do with your own body. When you are bigger, they talk st. When you are smaller, they talk st. Your body will never be enough for them because it is not meant for them. It is meant for you.”
The About Damn Time singer has faced body-shaming comments throughout her entire mainstream pop career.
Earlier this year, during an appearance on the Just Trish podcast, Lizzo shared that she tried Ozempic but eventually chose to focus on changing her diet as part of her personal weight loss journey.
“If I get a BBL, mind ur business. If I lose 100lbs, mind ur business. If I gain every pound back and then some, mind ur f**king business,” she wrote at the end of her caption.
“Anyways, my fat ass stays living with a paid-off mortgage in y’all b**ches heads.”
Lizzo’s message to her critics comes shortly after she drew attention for a Substack essay she posted titled Cancel Me (Again): A ‘Cancelled’ Woman’s Take on Why Everyone Should Get Cancelled at Least Once.
“Not everybody liked my most recent essay and that is exactly why I wrote it,” she said in a follow up post.
“I deserve the freedom to express myself like anyone else. I am human and I have earned the right to be wrong, to be prickly and even unlikable sometimes. It feels freeing for someone like me who used to be a chronic people pleaser. Thank you for the comments and the criticism. I welcome all of it.”
