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Ma I Don’t Love Her - Clipse (feat. Faith Evans)

Hell Hath No Fury critical praise was matched by few rap albums in the last decade. The album’s cold and calculating detail of the pains and rewards associated with the life of a cocaine dealer was a great accomplishment in the Neptunes’ production and the Clipse’s lyrics. Hell Hath No Fury is a great album, but the lack of range in the Clipse lyrics makes “Ma I Don’t Love Her” sound like a completely different rap duo despite only being four years of separation.

Lord Willin’ is a tropical beach vacation compared to the snow-covered streets embodied by Hell Hath No Fury. “Ma I Don’t Love Her” is the simple tale of a woman worrying about her rapper-boyfriend getting around with other women; however the Clipse shifted so much that even this clichéd rap topic was too outside of the circle of topics in 2006. The lyrical detail in the Clipse darkest songs did not leave them even in one of this popier song, “We got the dream home, now we settled in it. Our lives too perfect, that’s why they meddle in it. Now just chalk it up as part of game, you know what I’m about, whose got part of my name.” When the Neptunes produced the minimalist classic like “Grindin”; the whistles, vocal “aahh” and the tropical key stabs came together so well, showing they could still work with busier compositions. Before, the Clipse stripped their subject matter to its barest elements; they had elements of joy, humor, and darkness to go along with the Neptunes disparate production styles.