Pusha T was born Terrence LeVarr Thornton on May 13, 1977, in the Bronx borough of New York City, though the family soon relocated to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he and his brother, Gene Thornton, grew up.^[7][8] As teenagers, the brothers both sold drugs, with Gene eventually being kicked out of their parents' house after they discovered what he was doing.^[9][10] In 1992, alongside his brother, the two began to pursue a career in hip hop, forming a group known as Clipse. His older brother Gene was known for most of the group's duration as Malice (the two were originally known as Terrar and Malicious, respectively, and in 2012 Gene changed his stage name to No Malice, following a conversion to Christianity).

Shortly after forming Clipse, the brothers were introduced to record producer and fellow Virginian Pharrell Williams of The Neptunes, who helped them secure a recording contract with Elektra Records in 1997.^[11] Terrence initially took the stage name Terrar. After being signed to Elektra, they began working on their debut album, Exclusive Audio Footage. After recording the entire album, they released one single, "The Funeral", which was commercially unsuccessful and eventually led to the release of the album being cancelled and Clipse being dropped from the label shortly after. After being dropped, Terrar changed his name to Pusha T, and despite not being signed to a major label, he made numerous appearances on other artists' songs, appearing on Kelis' 1999 single "Good Stuff" and Nivea's 2001 single "Run Away (I Wanna Be with U)", respectively, thanks to his relationship with The Neptunes, who produced both songs.

In early 2001, Pharrell Williams signed the duo to Arista Records through his recently established Star Trak imprint. Clipse began working on their major label debut, executively produced by The Neptunes. Their debut single, Grindin' was released on May 14, 2002, and became a summer Top 40 hit, reaching number 30 on the BillboardHot 100 on July 30, 2002. Similar success followed with their second single, When the Last Time, which peaked at #19. Fueled by two successful singles, Clipse released their commercial debut album Lord Willin' on August 20, 2002, debuting at #1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-hop Album chart and #4 on the Billboard 200, eventually being certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on October 1, 2002.

In late 2003, Clipse began recording material for their second album, Hell Hath No Fury.^[11]However, further work on the album ground to a halt in 2004, when Arista Records's urban artists were absorbed into its sister label Jive Records as part of a larger merger between Sony Music Entertainment and BMG.^[11] Due to contractual requirements, Clipse was forced to stay on Jive, while Star Trak and the rest of its roster moved to their new home at Interscope Records.^[11] While Clipse resumed work on the album, and eventually finished recording it, the duo became increasingly frustrated with Jive, as the label was notorious for overlooking various hip-hop/R&B artists in favor of more pop-oriented acts on its roster. The label's musical strategy expansion caused numerous delays in the release of Hell Hath No Fury.^[11] As delays continued, the group asked for a formal release from its contract. When Jive refused to grant this request, the duo sued the label.^[11] In response to this, in 2004, the brothers launched their own record label imprint, Re-Up Records, and formed the hip hop group Re-Up Gang, along with fellow rappers Ab-Liva and Sandman.

On May 9, 2006, Clipse finally reached an agreement with Jive to release the album through both Re-Up and Jive.^[12] Hell Hath No Fury was finally released on November 28, 2006. Once again produced by The Neptunes, it debuted at #14 on the Billboard 200 with over 80,000 copies sold in the 1st week. While the album received a great deal of critical acclaim, its sales were less successful than Lord Willin'.^[13][11] It spawned two moderately successful singles: "Mr. Me Too" with Pharrell Williams and "Wamp Wamp (What It Do)" with Slim Thug.^[11] Clipse's frustrations with Jive were a constant theme of the album, with Pusha T saying "I'm sorry to the fans, but them crackers weren't playing fair at Jive" on the track Mr. Me Too.^[11] The hip hop magazine XXL gave the album a "XXL" rating, marking it as a five-star album. At the time only five albums had previously received that honor.^[11]

In a May 19, 2007, interview with Eye Weekly, Clipse revealed that they had been officially released from any contractual obligations with Jive.^[14] After this, the duo began discussions with several record labels, eventually signing with Columbia Records on October 26, 2007.^[15] The follow-up to Hell Hath No Fury, titled Til the Casket Drops, was released on December 8, 2009, via Columbia Records.^[16] In a departure from the group's previous works, which only featured production from the Neptunes, the album features production from Sean "Diddy" Combs' production team The Hitmen, and DJ Khalil among others. The album peaked at No. 41 on the Billboard 200.^[11]

After releasing their third album, Pusha T and Malice announced Clipse would be going on indefinite hiatus so the brothers could focus on their solo careers. Shortly after this, Pusha T was signed to Kanye West's GOOD Music label in September 2010, and made his first appearance as a member of the GOOD roster on Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, appearing on his hit "Runaway" and premiering the song with him at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. He was also featured on several tracks from West's GOOD Fridays series and made other appearances on Swizz Beatz's Monster Mondays series, Lloyd Banks' H.F.M. 2 (Hunger for More 2) and Tabi Bonney's Fresh, respectively. On the week of December 16, 2010, Pusha T signed an exclusive management deal with NUE Agency.^[17] On February 11, 2011, Funkmaster Flex debuted Pusha T's debut solo single on New York City's Hot 97.^[18] The track, titled "My God", was produced by Hit-Boy and was generally well received by the public. Soon after, the song leaked onto the internet, however was not officially released through iTunes and Amazon until August 24, 2011. On August 31, 2011, it was announced Pusha had signed a solo record deal with Def Jam.^[19]

On March 21, 2011, Pusha T released his solo debut, a mixtape titled Fear of God, which included "My God" and featured both freestylesand original songs, and included features from Kanye West, 50 Cent, Rick Ross, Pharrell Williamsand Kevin Cossom.^[20][21][22] The mixtape was well received, and soon after he began working on his debut extended play (EP) Fear of God II: Let Us Pray, which initially included four songs from the mixtape and five new songs. The EP was originally set to be released on June 21, 2011;^[23]however, it was pushed back to August 23, and for a while September 27 was believed to be the date, but after it came and went, on October 6, 2011, Pusha T announced the EP was set to be released on November 8, 2011. In addition, it was revealed he had added four more songs to the EP, bringing it to 12 tracks in total.^[24] Considered a re-release of the initial Fear of God, it was released on November 8, 2011, and was well received by critics.^[25][26]

The first single from Fear of God II: Let Us Praywas leaked onto the Internet on July 8, 2011. The song, titled "Trouble on My Mind", features Odd Future frontman Tyler, The Creator. The EP's second single, "Amen", was released September 13, 2011. The song, originally meant for Young Jeezy, was produced by Shawty Redd and features verses from Kanye West and Young Jeezy, respectively. After the EP's release on November 8, the project debuted at number 66 on the Billboard 200 with 8,900 copies sold in its first week released.^[27][28] It also entered at number ten on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, at number eight on Billboard's Top Rap Albums, and at number 25 on its Digital Albums chart.^[29][30]

In 2011, Pusha T appeared on the second season of the HBO series How to Make It in America. He played the role of a henchman for Urban Caribbean League.^[31] After the release of his EP, Pusha T started working on his solo debut studio album, which would be executively produced by Kanye West.^[32][33][34] Pusha also said that after the release of his solo debut album and the Re-Up Gang mixtape, Long Live the Cane, Clipse would also reunite and release another album.^[23] In late 2011, Pusha made a guest appearance on English pop music|pop singer Pixie Lott's "What Do You Take Me For?", the second single from her second studio album Young Foolish Happy.^[35] The song was a hit single in the UK, peaking at number ten on the UK Top 40.

On October 19, 2011, via Twitter, Kanye West announced plans for a Spring 2012 GOOD Musicalbum, featuring all artists from the label as well as numerous guest appearances. On April 6, 2012, "Mercy", the lead single from the GOOD Music compilation album Cruel Summer was released. The song, produced by newly signed in-house producer Lifted, features Pusha T along with Kanye West, Big Sean and southern rapper 2 Chainz.^[36] On May 24, 2012, Pusha T released a song titled "Exodus 23:1" featuring The-Dream. It is speculated that the song is a diss track aimed at Young Money rappers Drake and Lil Wayne.^[37]This resulted in a diss-song by Lil Wayne, which Pusha T did not directly respond to, but branded it as "horrible" in an interview.^[38] He was featured alongside West on the third single for Cruel Summer - "New God Flow". In October 2012, Pusha T made an appearance on the soundtrack to the film The Man with the Iron Fists on a track titled "Tick Tock" alongside fellow American rappers Raekwon, Joell Ortiz and Danny Brown.^[39]

On October 8, 2012, Pusha T released "Pain" featuring southern rapper Future, the first single from his debut album. That same day Spinmagazine reported that Pusha T's debut album had been pushed back until 2013.^[40] While performing in Vancouver, Canada, it was reported that Pusha T announced he would be releasing a mixtape entitled Wrath of Caine preceding the release of his debut studio album.^[41][42] Later in November, Thornton announced the title of his debut studio album to be My Name Is My Name.^[43] On December 5, 2012, Pusha T released "Blocka" the first single from his Wrath of Cainemixtape. The song features Travis Scott and Popcaan.^[44] The music video for the song was released on December 11, 2012.^[45] The mixtape was released on January 28, 2013, along with the announcement of his album coming at the end of the first quarter of 2013. In January 2013 it was announced that Pusha would be performing at the 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.^[46]