Daylight’s night-time party Eclipse returns to the Mandalay Bay pool club this week and the star of the show is Terrence Thornton, aka Pusha T, aka the president of Kanye West’s GOOD Music record label. Hot off the January release of his sophomore solo album King Push—Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude, Pusha is the rare veteran rapper—he began as one half of the highly underrated duo Clipse in the early ’90s—who has never fallen off, and in fact has only created more and more highly acclaimed music as his career continues.
Known just as much for precise rhymes as for the dark, intense atmospherics on his work, Pusha brings a barrage of aggressive, highly crafted songs into any live performance. His latest record features production from Daylight residents Metro Boomin and Baauer as well as hip-hop megastars West (of course), Timbaland, Q-Tip and Puff Daddy.
As Daylight continues to push the envelope with its artists, Pusha’s arrival here makes sense. He takes his art seriously, he’s competitive and you can hear and feel it in every track. “When I was coming up, rappers were my heroes ... I thought they were great artists; they were great fashion icons; they were everything all in one,” he told Rolling Stone right before the album dropped. “Now I look at rappers today, and ... all you see is guys who don’t have any real particular base ... There’s not too many rappers you want to be like these days.” Eclipse with Pusha T at Daylight, July 14.
