Hell Hath No Fury

The cover of Hell Hath No Fury is a portrait of Clipse, the Virginia Beach brothers Pusha T and Malice, photographed by Jonathan Mannion. Courtney Walter handled art direction and design. Mannion had shot many of the defining rap sleeves of the previous decade, and here he applies his direct, unfussy approach to a duo whose music was famously cold and exact.

The image carries the weight of a long wait. Recording began in late 2003, then stalled in 2004 when the Sony BMG merger moved Clipse from Arista to Jive. The brothers wanted to follow The Neptunes' Star Trak label, Jive refused, and two years of lawsuits and delays followed. By the time the album appeared, its title read as a message to the label as much as a proverb. The sleeve does not dress up that anger. It presents the two brothers as they were, which fitted a record about the drug trade told without glamour or apology, with production by The Neptunes stripped to bare drums and metal.

Jive did little to promote the album, yet critics placed it among the best records of 2006 and its standing has only grown since. The duo and the label agreed to part in 2007. Hell Hath No Fury was released on 28 November 2006.