Pusha T's 30 Best Verses

Rap god Pusha T will go down as one of the greatest lyricists of our generation. If you need any proof, look no further than his best verses, which span from his days as part of The Clipse to his Re-Up Gang run to his solo work as part of Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music family.

You oftentimes hear the phrase "your favorite rapper's favorite rapper" thrown around loosely, but in Pusha T's case the description is appropriate. The Virginia Beach representative,​ who initially built his rep brick by brick, switched to raps around the turn of the millennium and has since mastered the craft, earning the respect of his big homies, contemporaries, and up-and-comers in the process.

From his formative years as one half of Clipse alongside his brother Malice (now going by No Malice), to the Re-Up Gang era that provided a treasure trove of some of his rawest rhymes, to his current status as a major fixture within Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music, Pusha has become one of the most reliable lyricists on wax. In 2013, during the My Name Is My Name listening party, Kanye delivered a speech that summed up King Push's influence on the game. "Act like y'all ain't based your whole shit, your whole lifestyle off this ni**a, Pusha T."

To give you a better example of just how nice Pusha T is with the pen, we break down the best verses from his catalog. Yuugh!

31. Re-Up Gang "20k Money Making Brothers on the Corner"

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Album: We Got It 4 Cheap: Vol. 3: The Spirit of Competition (2008)

It’s impossible to separate Pusha’s verse on this from the wild Dame Grease beat, which sounds like an outtake from It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot. But Push uses the aggressive track to the maximum, filling up 12 bars with some of his most clever and wide-ranging boasts. Somehow, this short verse includes nods to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 8Ball & MJG, Face/Off, Tiger Woods, Ray Charles, and, best of all, cocaine that does yoga. —Shawn Setaro

30. Clipse "Intro" (Mixtape)

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Album: Road to Till the Casket Drops (2008)

Pusha is often at his most open at the beginnings and the endings of projects, and this opening track from Road to Till the Casket Drops is no exception. And so here he reveals maybe the closest thing he’s ever had to a mission statement—albeit one with a drug pun buried in the middle: “The message got twisted, I’m just young, black, and gifted/The theme was coke, but the lines was uplifting.” It’s a couplet that flips Pusha’s entire rap persona (not to mention his very moniker) on its head—this whole time, he was using language he knew we’d listen to in order to tell us things we really needed to hear. —Shawn Setaro

29. Future f/ Pharrell, Pusha T, and Casino "Move That Dope"

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Album: Honest (2014)

Honestly, I personally feel this shit should be way higher. But that's just a testament to Pusha's resume as an MC. Now that that's out the way... Pusha fucking SPAZZED on this track. It's insane to me how clever he is. 

"Young enough to still sell dope, but old enough that I knows better/When they sayin' it's 42 for that white powder, I knows better/Get it, n***a? I nose better, put a smile on the devil's face/Who don't wanna sell dope forever, and flood their Rollie till the bezel break?"

It's difficult to highlight certain lines in Pusha's verses because his writing style is so complex and interwoven. But his opening lyrics and delivery make his verses the most fun to rap along to. —Brandon 'Jinx' Jenkins

28. Re-Up Gang "Run This Sh*t"

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Album: We Got It 4 Cheap: Vol. 2: The Black Card Era (2005)

Some of Clipse’s best music came when they were most pissed off and had the most to prove. In label limbo after Lord Willin’, the brothers Thornton, along with Ab-Liva and Sandman, produced two classic mixtapes that kept their career alive.

This verse stands among Pusha’s best performances on the entire We Got It 4 Cheap series. The highlight comes when Push addresses his label issues directly, and drops his normal dope dealer reserve for real anger—and a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reference: “We got it for cheap, that’s the mantra/N***a, fuck Zomba/I sell nose candy, Willy Wonka.” —Shawn Setaro

27. Kanye West f/ Pusha T, CyHi the Prynce, and Keri Hilson "Take One for the Team"

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Album: n/a (2010)

One of the best things about Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Fridays series was experiencing his musical genius in progress on the lead up to MBDTF. This loosie was a free-flowing affair between 'Ye, CyHi, and Push that showcased the camaraderie between the trio with Keri Hilson in tow. More of a lyrical drill than a full on sprint, the song still allowed Push to shine as he pledged allegiance to his G.O.O.D Music general and proved that he’s a problem even when on autopilot. —Anslem Samuel Rocque 

26. Pusha T "Peso (Freestyle)"

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Album: n/a (2011)

Push pops up on this dreamy instrumental and casually delivers a series of obnoxious couplets before disappearing like a thief in the night. Some killer verses need to be comprised of a barrage of bars to have an impact, while others are direct shots that get the job done in short order. With “Peso (Freestyle)" Prof. Push orates a master’s class where less is more. —Anslem Samuel Rocque 

25. Pusha T f/ Tyler, the Creator "Trouble on My Mind" (Verse 1)

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Album: Fear of God II: Let Us Pray (2011)

Throughout his tenure, Pusha has delivered some of his best verses when he shares real estate with another rapper. In this case it's Tyler, the Creator—a pairing that shouldn't work, but it does. Pusha adopts Tyler's sporadic topic-changing flow and perfects it with hypnotizing clever lines like: "Whole 'nother level then you add fame/That's a whole 'nother devil, legit drug dealer/That's a whole 'nother bezel, the carbon Audemar/That's a whole 'nother metal, but still keep it ghetto/Behind the scenes, pull strings like Geppetto​/The gun blow steam, whistle like a tea kettle/Runnin' like the rebels, UNLV Sport shoe on a pedal, I let you n***as settle." —Brandon 'Jinx' Jenkins

24. Pusha T "My God" (Verse 2)

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Album: Fear of God II: Let Us Pray (2011)

I wanted to go with the first verse, but when I played the song again and heard Pusha say, "The O-12 a year early, I'm a time bandit," I threw myself out of a window. No bullshit. Now here I am blogging with a full body cast on in a hospital bed because my editors wanted "real life blurbs like a Pusha bar." I'm looking forward to my new body. I'm gonna be aerodynamic with my roof panoramic! —Angel Diaz

23. Clipse "Intro"

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Album: Lord Willin' (2002)

OK, this verse is my autobiography but the statute of limitations​ will not allow me to comment further. "Playas we ain't the same, I'm into 'caine and guns/Chopard with the fishes, make the face lift numb/Out in Panama in that amazing sun; I'm amazing, son/You n***as wonder where my grace is from/I speak with corrupted tongue, recognized the underworld since I was young." Blame the Miami Vice theme music and Jim Carrey's mask. —Angel Diaz

22. Birdman f/ Clipse "What Happened to That Boy"

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Album: Birdman (2002)

There’s nothing novel about rappers telegraphing murdergrams, but when Pusha T anchored Birdman’s 2002 single he at least made it sound interesting. From his patented ad-libs to his inventive ways of describing a bloodbath, the “gorgeous killa” displayed more than enough swagger to body the track with memorable bars like, “Quit your yappin’ before I get to clappin’/And have your body parts mix and matchin’.”  —Anslem Samuel Rocque 

21. Clipse f/ Jadakiss, Styles P, and Rosco P. Coldchain "I'm Not You"

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Album: Lord Willin' (2002)

With the first verse on "I'm Not You" Push-a-Ton makes it clear that despite his prowess in the booth, he's not like these other rappers. He provides the detail that one can only get from living off experience. "Zonin' family, keep youngins in them rented Camrys/Door panels full of shit and I ain't full of shit/Reckless ass, God forbid they don't crash/From the panel to the dash, it's four pounds of slab/Nah, bitch, we don't believe in air bags/Cars turn tricks like them Ringling Brothers skits." His bars aren't fictitious, they're lived in. Which only pushes his raps further out of reach from competitors. —Brandon 'Jinx' Jenkins

20. N*E*R*D f/ Kanye West, Pusha T, and Lupe Fiasco "Everyone Nose (Remix)"

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Album: Seeing Sounds (2008)

If you had any questions at all about Pusha T's career choice before rapping, his verse on "Everyone Nose (Remix)" will settle that for you, swiftly. Push starts the feature off with, "Yuugh! I got a crown made of powder," letting us know right out of the gate that he might not be 'bout it 'bout it right now, but once upon a time, it was a different story. The whole verse—OK, I'm exaggerating—90 percent of the verse is dedicated to flipping between different references to cocaine. As this is something Pusha is particularly known for, the challenge he accepts here is matching the energy in the propulsive, high-energy production laid down by the Neptunes. Drug reference overload or not, don't front: You know he nailed it. —Kiana Fitzgerald

19. Pusha T "Blow"

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Album: Fear of God (2011)

Pusha T raps as if his back is against the wall. There’s a constant sense of deliberate urgency that reverberates the lyrical onslaught that is “Blow.” Throughout the one-shot verse he paints colorful canvases with his words that linger in the competition’s eardrums like a sharpened paintbrush. “This art imitate my life/Your WorldStarHipHop fame based off imitation white/Eliminate the fool’s gold and imitation ice/My music for your soul, inspiration for your life.” A musical massacre never sounded so beautiful. —Anslem Samuel Rocque 

18. Re-Up Gang "Re-Up Gang Intro"

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Album: We Got It 4 Cheap: Vol. 3: The Spirit of Competition/Clipse Presents: Re-Up Gang (2008)

It’s not often that Pusha deigns to beef with other artists, but it’s always memorable—check his classic attack on Drake. So when King Push decided he wasn’t feeling Lil Wayne’s self-coronation as the best rapper alive, the response was vicious. At the end of this stellar verse (comparing the coke he’d moved to the Abominable Snowman was a particular highlight), Pusha came for Weezy’s neck. “Sorry but, I don't respect who you applauding/Little n***a flow, but his metaphors boring,” he rapped. And then, the last two bars: “Don't make me turn daddy's little girl to orphan/That would mean I'd have to kill Baby like abortion.” —Shawn Setaro

17. Pusha T and Kanye West Hot 97 Freestyle (Verse 2)

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Album: n/a (2010)

We had to go with this version instead of the first verse on “Alone in Vegas (Outro)” for the GIF this video created. Push’s verses are hard to write about because they’re so straightforward; no line is wasted. Watch the video and watch the fire in his eyes and his maniacal laughs like he’s rap’s very own Joker just wanting the booth to burn for only his entertainment. —Angel Diaz

16. Pusha T "Intro"

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Album: King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude (2015)

Pusha T gave us the "prelude" for an album he promised was imminent almost two-and-a-half years ago now. As his mans says, at this point he's "late as a motherfucker, Colored People Time" but who can complain about how long the entrée is taking when son gave us lines like, "I'm watching this three ring circus/Old lions don't roar so the clowns ain't nervous" to chew on. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've thought about that line daily since I first heard it. No one else does menace so casually; no one else packages threats quite as concisely. I believe everything Pusha T promises. The validation is coming any day now. —Frazier Tharpe

15. Kanye West f/ Jay Z, Pusha T, CyHi the Prynce, Swizz Beatz, and RZA "So Appalled"

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Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

King Push is at his best when he's storytelling. His verse on Kanye's aurally daunting "So Appalled" is exhibit A, a fractured portrait of his life and surroundings. During his feature, he picks up and leaves off on the same train of thought—what a life the dope game has given him—but he allows it to exist in different stages, from different angles. "Everything I dream, motherfuckers, I'm watching it take shape/While to you, I'm just a young rich n***a that lacks faith." He's self-aware enough to take stock of others' opinions of him, but nowhere near susceptible enough to be shaken from his regal mindset. "Flaws ain't flaws when it's you that makes the call." —Kiana Fitzgerald

14. Clipse "We Got It for Cheap (Intro)" (Verse 1)

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Album: Hell Hath No Fury (2006)

The most ominous threats are the ones that, at first, don’t even seem like threats. When Pusha ended his verse on “We Got It for Cheap (Intro)” by calmly proclaiming “they praying I never go solo,” it was either an idle threat for the purposes of grandstanding or a premonition for any rapper vying for the crown. The truth is it was a mixture of both as the Virginia spitter simultaneously highlights his drug and rap résumé in the span of 40 seconds. In the end this lyrical lob wasn’t a threat; it was a promise.  —Anslem Samuel Rocque 

13. Pusha T "Numbers on the Board" (Verse 1)

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Album: My Name Is My Name (2013)

Cocksure as ever, Push effortlessly oozes confidence all over this mechanical concoction of a beat that grinds everything to a halt and universally forces faces to scrunch. The average rapper would get lost in the pockets of this track, but Pusha dissects it with the steady hand of a surgeon who could operate in the midst of a hurricane and still not miss a step. Each bar here is purposeful in its delivery and every syllable is enunciated for full impact. “It’s only one God, and it’s only one crown/So it’s only one king that can stand on this mound.” All hail, King Push. —Anslem Samuel Rocque 

12. Clipse f/ Pharrell "Mr. Me Too"

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Album: Hell Hath No Fury (2006)

First things first, the Neptunes laced TF out of the Clipse with "Mr. Me Too." The half boom bap, half dissonant beat was just spacious enough for Pusha to do some light calisthenics on wax. "Pyrex stirs turned into Cavalli furs," he muses halfway through the verse. Much of it plays out in high fashion, no pun intended, but it ends with a moment of sobering reality: "These are the days of our lives and I'm sorry to the fans/But the crackers weren't playin' fair at Jive." It's a harkening back to the late Pimp C's similar outcry of mistreatment by the label, and a reminder that the music industry is still an uneven one that can affect even the best of the best. —Kiana Fitzgerald

11. Kanye West, Pusha T, Big Sean, and 2 Chainz "Mercy"

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Album: Cruel Summer (2012)

When "Mercy" dropped, it was like an instantaneous sonic boom. The track, with its myriad quotables and repetitive beat, was custom made for the culture to consume and blast on repeat. One of the best offerings from Kanye's years-long G.O.O.D. Fridays series (don't @ me), the track gave each of its participants—'Ye, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, and King Push—the opportunity to flex for the fuck of it. (The song is about a Lamborghini, for goodness sake.)

"Mercy" cracks the top 10 of this list because, even though Pusha didn't have the hardest verse on the song, he made you think he did with his delivery. Universal appreciation for his bars kick in when his tone turns from rap-your-face-off mode to subtle stunt mode: "All she want is some heel money/All she need is some bill money/He take his time, he counts it out/I weighs it up, that's real money." Filed under: Things an average broke boy would never know. —Kiana Fitzgerald

10. Pusha T "Exodus 23:1"

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Album: n/a (2012)

Us rap fans love a hefty serving of subs to sift through, analyze and attribute but at the same time... it's canon that your diss track isn't Hall of Fame if you don't name names. Leave it to Pusha T to be the rare exception. Nearly three minutes without any direct shots and yet his intended targets still #reacted, and poorly. On his next tour stop Drake gave a tepid half-bar, "If you had ill 16s when I was 16/And then your shit flopped and you switched teams/Don't talk to me, my n***a." Wayne's "Ghoulish"—Push would later say his anxiousness as he pressed play quickly turned to laughter—was worse (but hilariously so, see: "His head up his ass I'ma have to headbutt him" or "I don't bank with Chase I just chase the bank").

You can't blame them, though. Most disses are impassioned. Pusha sounds so disaffected and sneering here, the nonchalance adds a deeper level of disrespect. And the bars? Deceptively simple: "You signed to one n***a who's signed to another n***a, now that's bad luck" at one point then poetic imagery later: "we the ones the judge juggling them gavels on." Then when you get to the end of the verse, with freezer burn all over your speakers and you think Pusha's made his contempt clear enough, he underlines his sentiment with this ice cold kicker: "Ask Steve Jobs, wealth don't buy health." —Frazier Tharpe

9. Clipse "Keys Open Doors"

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Album: Hell Hath No Fury (2006)

One of the most important points Push makes on this verse is that his street money was so long he hadn't even begun to touch the paper he made in the rap game, which is a feat in and of itself. Although when you delve into his opening verse on "Keys Opens Doors," you can see why. He's got a different mentality than these other cats, that's why these "MySpace n***as" choose to copy his style like internet files as opposed to acting original. Doesn't matter, though; Push is chilling on South Beach, living a big life while his money men are astonished at the funds he's cleaning up from his time in the game. Push really is the King of this. —khal

8. Clipse "Grindin'" (Verse 1)

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Album: Lord Willin' (2002)

What better way to introduce the world to Clipse than with this quirky trunk rattler from the Neptunes? This track was literally something the world had never felt before, and Pusha T ushered in their slick-tongued coke chronicles with ease. He's the subwoofer for the base that he pumps, both as an artist and as your, well, neighborhood pusher. With a few lines he also says sorry for the cats who got locked down for this life, but also acknowledges that he won't leave the life, due to how much cash he's making. Ultimately, he does recognize that his homie Pharrell has always been on this musical grind, and even though the streets keep calling, he's made the decision to get serious about his pen. —khal

7. Clipse f/ Kanye West "Kinda Like a Big Deal"

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Album: Til the Casket Drops (2009)

This verse contains much of what makes Pusha great. There’s the attention to detail: playing on the song’s title, there are Notorious B.I.G. references littered throughout the first four bars. There are boasts about money. There are jokes. And, of course, there’s that coke talk. But in the middle of all of it, almost as an afterthought, there’s a burst of sadness. “To the powder and the flame I have fallen,” Pusha spits. And suddenly, just for a moment, you’re wondering what exactly all the wordplay, all the money, and all the brags about how much cocaine he’s moved are covering up. —Shawn Setaro

6. Clipse f/ Ab-Liva "Ride Around Shining"

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Album: Hell Hath No Fury (2006)

Throughout this feature, you no doubt hear Push flip cocaine a litany​ of ways, with phenomenal wordplay. Not too often do you have metaphors for cooking crack manifest themselves as awesome as Push saying he's the Black Martha Stewart making "cocaine quiches." Even in that, when you realize that the "qui" is a fly way of speaking on a kilo of coke? Mind you, this is just one slice of an intoxicating batch of bars that lace themselves within the hypnotic head nod of a Neptunes track. Push gets you fucked the fuck up EARLY on this '06 banger. —khal

5. Kanye West, Pusha T, and Ghostface Killah "New God Flow" (Verse 1)

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Album: Cruel Summer (2012)

Anyone who ever doubted that Kanye and Pusha would make a killer combination was set straight by the end of “New God Flow.” T goes for the jugular with blasphemous bars about his lyrical supremacy before outlining the logic behind joining the G.O.O.D Music roster: “I think it’s good that 'Ye got a blow dealer/A hot temper, matched with a cold killer/I came aboard for more than just to rhyme with him/Think '99, when Puff woulda had Shyne with him.” —Anslem Samuel Rocque 

4. Kanye West f/ Pusha T "Runaway"

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Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

There are 10 different blurbs one could write about this verse, and it's roughly 50 seconds of ornately crafted beauty. It's apiece with the greater nine minutes of this classic, glimmering like one small invisibly set cluster of diamonds in the greater Rollie Pusha callously speaks of. We could talk about how "24/7/365, pussy stays on my mind" is one of the catchiest but also knowingly crass opening lines in rap history. We could talk about this tight verse's now mythological creation in which Kanye Christopher Walken West urged Terrence to radiate "more douchebag" to a point where the typically one-shot, one kill MC rewrote his raps four times, prodding at a raw relationship wound more and more in the process. We can give the verse extra points for an A+ deployment of an Ichabod Crane reference (the second Sleepy Hollow reference on the album). We can bask in how the beat gorgeously swells as Pusha muses how hoes are like vultures, and how the juxtaposition of a beautiful beat and an ugly line fits in with the larger juxtaposition of Pusha's performatively cold and calculated disaffected mood on a song where Kanye is messily baring his soul. But really, what struck me about this verse for the first time in the seven years that it's been in our lives? This is, perhaps the only, Pusha T verse that has nary a cocaine reference. Wow. —Frazier Tharpe

3. Pusha T f/ Kendrick Lamar "Nosetalgia"

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Album: My Name Is My Name (2013)

Absolutely no one talks that drug talk better than Pusha T. No one. On "Nosetalgia," he travels back in time to provide hyper-detailed snapshots of his day as a padawan peddler. "N***a, I was crack in the school zone/Two beepers on me, Starter jacket that was two-toned/Four lockers, four different bitches got their mule on/Black Ferris Bueller, cutting school with his jewels on." I felt that.

Pusha reminisces over the rewards he garnered from his heartless flips and maneuvers with an accuracy and creativity possessed only by a gymnast. He raises the bar on his bars even further by throwing Kendrick Lamar on the song, who spits arguably one of his best guest verses in his catalog. 

Despite having a knack for intricate lyrics, clever wordplay, and themes that weave through an entire verse, Pusha best sums up his charm as an MC and why this verse is one of his best when he declares: "N***a this is timeless, simply 'cause it's honest/Pure as the fumes that be fuckin' with my sinus." —Brandon 'Jinx' Jenkins

2. Pusha T "Don't F*ck With Me" (Verse 2)

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Album: n/a (2011)

"The talk don't match the leathers/The swag don't match the sweaters/And wolves don't walk with shepherds," is:

-one of the hardest bars I've ever heard in my life

-one of the cleverest sonnings I've ever heard in my life

-one of the most intelligently simple ways to sow ghostwriter doubt, communicate fraudulence, and express disdain.

The way Pusha delivers that last line, he almost sounds sorry for, uh, *whoever* he's talking about. The hardest line isn't even in the verse proper. "No shots *snicker* but nothing goes unseen." Anyone who doesn't heed that title after hearing this deserves what's coming to them. —Frazier Tharpe

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