Pusha T

Terrence Thornton, better known as Pusha T, was a hip-hop kingpin who gained renown on multiple fronts. Though he was born in the hip-hop hotbed of The Bronx, New York, he grew up in Virginia Beach, where he started Clipse with his brother, Gene "No Malice" Thornton. Produced by The Neptunes, the duo's debut album Exclusive Audio Footage was to have been released in 1999 but got shelved. Instead, their first LP was Lord Willin', released through Arista in 2002, which went Gold and rocketed up the charts. The following year, Clipse joined Justin Timberlake on his debut single, "Like I Love You," which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. In 2004 the Thornton brothers started their own label, Re-Up Records, as well as inaugurating the Re-Up Gang collective; that same year the Re-Up Gang released the first of several mixtapes. Clipse released their second album, Hell Hath No Fury, in 2006, reaching No. 2 on the Rap charts. In 2010 Pusha T scored a solo deal with Kanye West's label, GOOD Music. A mixtape and an EP were released the following year, but Thornton's first solo album, My Name Is My Name, didn't come out until 2013. Though it didn't yield any hit singles, even with guest stars like Chris Brown and Kendrick Lamer, it hit the upper rungs of the pop, R&B, and Rap charts. Just a month before the release of his second album, 2015's King Push-Darkest Before the Dawn: The Prelude, it was announced that he had been made president of GOOD Music. Like its predecessor, it contained no hit singles, but it did reach the top spot on the Rap charts. Numerous collaborations followed, including songs with Linkin Park and Gorillaz. In 2018, the third Pusha T album, Daytona, was released.