In 2009, hip-hop was at an inflection point. Veterans like Eminem and Jay-Z scored Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s, Kanye West and Lil Wayne enjoyed their imperial phases, a new generation of talent began to rise through blogs — and Clipse, the Virginia-bred rap duo of brothers Pusha T and Malice, released its third album, Til the Casket Drops.

Sixteen years passed — an ­eternity by rap’s standards — as Pusha T became a successful solo artist and label executive while Malice took a hiatus from rapping to pursue his faith. But in July, Clipse reunited and finally dropped another album: Let God Sort Em Out.

Already a blockbuster hip-hop release, the project wouldn’t have been a true reunion without fellow Virginian Pharrell Williams in the mix as producer. As one-half of The Neptunes, he lent his cosmic sonic canvas to Pusha T and Malice’s coke-laced raps, poignant storytelling and opulent flexes on their three 2000s-era albums — and in the years following Til the Casket Drops, he became a household name thanks to his work in music, film, TV and fashion. This time around, Pharrell invited Clipse to Louis Vuitton headquarters in Paris, where he serves as men’s creative director, to meticulously craft their cinematic reintroduction over sessions that spanned two years. With a No. 4 bow on the Billboard 200 — Clipse’s highest mark since its 2002 debut, Lord Willin’ — the project arrived to critical acclaim and album of the year chatter. And, in the process, the trio of ’70s babies punctured the myth that rap is a young man’s sport.

“I’ve always looked at rap and other genres, rock specifically, and I’ve never liked how rap always had the age ceiling where everyone else didn’t,” Pusha T, 48, tells Billboard during a call with Malice and Pharrell as Clipse’s tour bus heads to Detroit. “I’ve personally always wanted to make it my business to crack that ceiling, and I think the Clipse album 1,000% [did it].”

“Martin Scorsese made The Irishman not too long ago,” adds Pharrell, 52, referencing the 2019 film by the now-82-year-old filmmaking legend. “You don’t stop being great. You might decide not to continue to share your gift with the world. But great is great.”

After paying seven figures in June to exit its deal with Def Jam (the act refused the label’s request to censor Kendrick Lamar’s featured verse on Let God Sort Em Out), Clipse seamlessly transitioned to Roc Nation for distribution and went on to deliver one of the more memorable rollouts in recent rap history, with KAWS-designed cover art, a Carhartt merchandise collaboration and even a runway appearance at a Louis Vuitton fashion show with Jay-Z and Beyoncé in the front row.

Amid it all, this summer, Clipse embarked on its first tour in over 15 years — and then flew to Rome to become the first hip-hop artists to perform at the Vatican, playing to a crowd of a quarter-million as part of Grace for the World, a concert co-directed by Pharrell. Next April, the act will make its Coachella debut. “This is something that you couldn’t plan for by no stretch of the imagination,” says Malice, 53.

But despite all these wins, ­Pusha T, Malice and Pharrell have their sights set on another accolade: a Grammy Award in 2026. While the decorated Pharrell has earned 13 of them, Clipse never has; the duo’s lone nomination is for featuring on Justin Timberlake’s “Like I Love You” in 2003, and Pusha T has five solo noms. Pharrell hopes Clipse can perform the tearful Let God Sort Em Out opener “The Birds Don’t Sing” at the awards and that they can honor their parents with a Grammy win. “You got people who get them and pee on them, and we ain’t doing none of that,” Pharrell jokes. “We want them for our parents.”

What’s it like hearing all the album of the year talk surrounding Let God Sort Em Out?

Malice: I like it because it’s unanimous; it’s the consensus. Everywhere we go, people keep saying it. Just that it hits everybody in that way. With that being the case, that just can’t be denied. It didn’t come from us saying it; it comes from the listener.

Pusha T: I fully agree with that. It speaks to the testament of what we put into the music. This is still art class for us, man. I was never in band or anything, but I feel like we attacked this music in such a way that it comes with that level of precision. There’s a level of expertise that is shown in the creation and displayed in the creation of this music. I’m glad that it comes across and hits people in that way. People are using “sophisticated” and “high-taste level” and all these adjectives to explain the music.

Pharrell Williams: The precision and the discipline that was exercised, I thought we would get our flowers for. But I think we got more than that. I think people are really reacting. This is what’s been so surprising to me: People are reacting to more than just the sounds, the ideas, like lyrically and song concept-wise. They responded to what the Clipse and myself put into our respective jobs. Beats and the musicality that I contributed to it and their ideas, concepts and lyrics; it’s more than that. What I see people responding to is when you wipe away all of our work, at the core of what we did that I think is different than what you get elsewhere is that we were painting not with sounds and lyrics — we were painting with feelings.

That’s where we all met up. The intersection of what I think this music is is feelings. I was playing with feelings. They were writing with feelings. And I’m not saying other people don’t feel — I’m just saying, like, you could really feel this. When these guys get into “Birds Don’t Sing,” it’s the symbolism as much as it is the lyrical acrobatics that happened there. Malice used that word earlier, “unanimous”; that’s an art form to be able to achieve that, with many people walking away feeling the same things. For me, the testament is seeing people walk away feeling s–t.

When you talk about creating with a feeling, is that different from the early years working with Clipse?

Pharrell: When we were kids, we just did the s–t because it was fun. And what we ended up doing was based on taste. Now we know we’re students. We know that we’re blessed. This was ordained. We’ve been led to this place. That’s the distinct difference between being young and arrogant, making “Momma I’m So Sorry” [from 2006’s Hell Hath No Fury] and being students and real artists who paint with emotions to make a “Birds Don’t Sing.”

They say rap’s a young man’s game, but you guys have never aged out of it, and this project felt fresh. Touch on that.

Pusha T: You started the question with the phrasing of a young man’s sport — we kind of cracked the ceiling on that. Looking at just competing in music, I’ve never felt like it was a young man’s sport. I always felt like it was a competitor’s sport. As long as you’re competing and you’re living through the times, you should be in it. You have to be in it. You can’t passively be in it. Nah, man, this is about who can compete and who can’t. Being able to compete through different eras and trends, to be able to A and B your music versus whatever’s popular. Let God Sort Em Out speaks volumes when it comes to that.

Malice: I don’t think we should slight ourselves because it is a young man’s sport until proven otherwise. I think we’ve yet to see that happen at this level. I think when making [Let God Sort Em Out], and with all the Clipse albums, you know what you’re about to release. You can also tell if you’re being mediocre. It’s good that people have seen it be achieved, and I still think people are gonna have a tough time doing it.