Pusha T

Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper.

He rose to prominence as one-half of the Virginia-based hip hop duo Clipse, which he formed with his older brother No Malice.

Pusha T was born Terrence LeVarr Thornton on May 13, 1977, in the Bronx borough of New York City, though the family soon relocated to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he and his brother, Gene Thornton, grew up.

As teenagers, the brothers both sold drugs, with Gene eventually being kicked out of their parents' house after they discovered what he was doing.

In 1992, alongside his brother, the two began to pursue a career in hip hop, forming a group known as Clipse.

Mainly active from 1994 to 2010, the duo were discovered by fellow Virginia-based act Pharrell Williams and signed with his record label Star Trak Entertainment, an imprint of Arista Records to release three studio albums—Lord Willin' (2002), Hell Hath No Fury (2006) and Til the Casket Drops (2009)—to mild commercial success.

The former spawned the Billboard Hot 100-top 40 singles "Grindin'" and "When the Last Time", for which they became best known.

Shortly after forming Clipse, the brothers were introduced to record producer and fellow Virginian Pharrell Williams of The Neptunes, who helped them secure a recording contract with Elektra Records in 1997.

Terrence initially took the stage name Terrar.

After being signed to Elektra, they began working on their debut album, Exclusive Audio Footage.

After recording the entire album, they released one single, "The Funeral", which was commercially unsuccessful and eventually led to the release of the album being cancelled and Clipse being dropped from the label shortly after.

After being dropped, Terrar changed his name to Pusha T, and despite not being signed to a major label, he made numerous appearances on other artists' songs, appearing on Kelis' 1999 single "Good Stuff" and Nivea's 2001 single "Run Away (I Wanna Be with U)", respectively, thanks to his relationship with The Neptunes, who produced both songs.

In early 2001, Pharrell Williams signed the duo to Arista Records through his recently established Star Trak imprint.

Clipse began working on their major label debut, executively produced by The Neptunes.

Their debut single, Grindin' was released on May 14, 2002, and became a summer Top 40 hit, reaching number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 30, 2002.

Similar success followed with their second single, When the Last Time, which peaked at #19.

Fueled by two successful singles, Clipse released their commercial debut album Lord Willin' on August 20, 2002, debuting at #1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-hop Album chart and #4 on the Billboard 200, eventually being certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on October 1, 2002.

In late 2003, Clipse began recording material for their second album, Hell Hath No Fury.

However, further work on the album ground to a halt in 2004, when Arista Records's urban artists were absorbed into its sister label Jive Records as part of a larger merger between Sony Music Entertainment and BMG.

Due to contractual requirements, Clipse was forced to stay on Jive, while Star Trak and the rest of its roster moved to their new home at Interscope Records.

While Clipse resumed work on the album, and eventually finished recording it, the duo became increasingly frustrated with Jive, as the label was notorious for overlooking various hip-hop/R&B artists in favor of more pop-oriented acts on its roster.

The label's musical strategy expansion caused numerous delays in the release of Hell Hath No Fury.

As delays continued, the group asked for a formal release from its contract.

When Jive refused to grant this request, the duo sued the label.

In response to this, in 2004, the brothers launched their own record label imprint, Re-Up Records, and formed the hip hop group Re-Up Gang, along with fellow rappers Ab-Liva and Sandman.

On May 9, 2006, Clipse finally reached an agreement with Jive to release the album through both Re-Up and Jive.

Hell Hath No Fury was finally released on November 28, 2006.

After the duo disbanded in 2010, Thornton promptly pursued a solo career.

He signed with Kanye West's record label GOOD Music, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings following his work on West's fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010).

He guest featured on West's single "Runaway" in October of that year—which peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100—as well as his song "So Appalled" also from the album.

He released two of his debut solo projects–Fear of God and Fear of God II: Let Us Pray—in 2011, prior to the release of his debut studio album, My Name Is My Name (2013).

His older brother Gene was known for most of the group's duration as Malice (the two were originally known as Terrar and Malicious, respectively, and in 2012 Gene changed his stage name to No Malice, following a conversion to Christianity).

Once again produced by The Neptunes, it debuted at #14 on the Billboard 200 with over 80,000 copies sold in the 1st week.

While the album received a great deal of critical acclaim, its sales were less successful than Lord Willin'.

It spawned two moderately successful singles: "Mr. Me Too" with Pharrell Williams and "Wamp Wamp (What It Do)" with Slim Thug.

Met with critical and commercial success, it peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and was followed by his second and third albums King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude (2015) and Daytona (2018), which peaked at numbers 20 and three on the chart respectively.

His fourth album, It's Almost Dry (2022) became his first to debut atop the Billboard 200.

West appointed Thornton to take over his role as president of GOOD Music in late 2015, where he remained one of the label's flagship artists until his departure and dissociation with West in 2022.

In 2020, he launched his record label Heir Wave Music Group, which aims as a platform for Virginia-based artists.

Throughout his career, Thornton has received five Grammy Award nominations.