The song Pusha T called the “ode to Virginia that was never made”
Virginia is one of America’s more understated rap centres, but the fact is, the state has produced some remarkably successful artists. Pharrell Williams, Timbaland, Missy Elliott and Pusha T all hail from Virginia, and Push, for one, has wanted to celebrate that fact.
On the 2002 Clipse album Lord Willin’, Pusha, his brother and bandmate Malice, and fellow Virginia natives Pharrell and Chad Hugo, operating as The Neptunes, created a song dedicated to their home state. Aptly titled ‘Virginia’, it was intended as an “ode to Virginia that was never made,” as Push told Complex in 2011.
Elaborating, Push explained that “a lot of people make records about where they’re from”, but so many rappers tend to be from New York, Los Angeles or Atlanta. This, he believed, helped the audience to relate to the music, given people’s familiarity with these traditional rap hubs.
“They see these places glorified on TV or they’re known for what they have going on in their city,” Push argued, “But Virginia wasn’t that well-known of a place”.
Push conceded that people may well have been aware that the likes of The Neptunes, Timbaland and Missy Elliott came from Virginia, but he believed they still may have been ignorant of “what Virginia was about”, which “seemed to be the problem”, from his perspective.
Push and his collaborators consequently set out to put things right, creating the song ‘Virginia’ and including it as the third track of Clipse’s debut album. Lord Willin’ entered the Billboard 200 at number four on release, while it took the top spot of the R&B and hip hop albums chart. Lots of people heard it, in other words, and so lots heard this ode to Virginia, too.
Push was initially taken aback by the positive reaction people had to ‘Virginia,’ particularly those fans from outside the state. “Like,” he explained, “I would go to Detroit, and people would be like, ‘Do Virginia!’ It’s just like, ‘Huh? Y’all really wanna hear about Virginia?’”
Push explained he had considered ‘Virginia’ to be “an amazing record” after they’d made it, but it became “even better” when he noted how “everyone else in the world took to it”. Clipse had helped to put Virginia on the hip-hop map.
Virginia can never compare to the historic importance of New York and California in the early history of hip hop, but it has nonetheless contributed considerably to its development in the years since, with Pusha T among those carrying the baton for the state. It is fitting then that he, his brother and The Neptunes were the ones to create its unofficial rap anthem.