Clipse - The Birds Don't Sing

Song Exploder

Hrishikesh Hirway

Music

4.8 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Clipse was formed in 1994 by two brothers: Gene Thornton Jr, aka Malice, and his younger brother Terrence Thornton, aka Pusha T. From the beginning, they’ve worked with producer Pharrell Williams, originally as part of the acclaimed production duo, The Neptunes. But then, there was a 16 year gap between the third Clipse album, which came out in 2009, and their most recent album, Let God Sort Em Out, which came out in July 2025. This November, they were nominated for 5 Grammys, including Album of the Year. They were also nominated for Best Rap Song, for “The Birds Don’t Sing.” It’s a song that they made after the death of both of their parents in the span of just a few months. For this episode, I asked Pusha T, Malice, and Pharrell about the making of that song, which also features contributions from John Legend and Stevie Wonder.

For more info, visit songexploder.net/clipse.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. Before we get into the episode, I want to say thanks so much for listening to Song Exploder. This might be your first episode, or maybe it's your 300th. It's crazy to me to think that the podcast has even been around this long. But I will say that unfortunately over the last couple of years, it's your 300th. It's crazy to me to think that the podcast has even been around this long.
0:21.5	But I will say that, unfortunately, over the last couple of years, it's been getting harder and
0:25.8	harder to see what the future might look like for the show, or if there even is a future.
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1:12.1	careful production and sensitive editing. It's a lot of work, but I really believe in making
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1:33.8	It can kind of feel like a very lonely vacuum sometimes, and even just knowing that there are people out there who care is huge.
1:40.1	The link again is songexploder.net slash donate. And sincerely, thank you.
1:47.0	Clips was formed in 1994 by two brothers, Gene Thornton Jr., aka Malice, and his younger brother,
1:55.0	Terence Thornton, aka Pusha Tea. From the beginning, they've worked with producer Ferrell Williams,
	...

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