Billboard Staff’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2025: Comeback Artist of the Year — Clipse

Trending on Billboard 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. 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 , setting the stage for a blockbuster return. Rolling Stone 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...

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