Culturally Inappropriate: Clipse and the Power of Owning Your Story, Masters, and Hustle in Hip-Hop

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 3:45 pm - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Spaces of Sound, Memory, and Meaning in Hip Hop Education

Abstract

The return of Clipse is not just a musical event; it's a cultural statement, steeped in theological weight, entrepreneurial precision, and lyrical mastery. To understand its significance, we must analyze it through three intersecting lenses: Hip-Hop praxis, entrepreneurial strategy, and narrative sovereignty. This paper explores Let God Sort Em Out, the 2025 album by Clipse, as a culturally urgent case study in Hip-Hop praxis, entrepreneurial strategy, and narrative sovereignty. Reuniting after more than a decade, Clipse delivers not just music, but a multidimensional act of reclamation. In a political moment where Black cultural expression faces systemic silencing through curriculum bans, corporate sanitization, and digital manipulation, Clipse reasserts the right to own their story, their sound, and their business model.

Authors

• Stephen Walker, University of Pittsburgh

• Marlene N. Fares, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania