Clavish: the quiet London rapper who lets his aloof music do the talking

‘Put on a beat and I’ll say a lot’ … Clavish. Photograph: Eddie Cheaba

From London, England
Recommended if you like Nines, Meek Mill, Potter Payper
Up next Debut mixtape, Rap Game Awful, released 13 January; touring the UK and Ireland in March

Clavish’s arrival on the scene in 2018 was every bit as nonchalant as the north London rapper’s laid-back delivery: leaning out the window of a hatchback dropping slick bars over a Migos beat, flicking off lyrics like discarded responsibilities. The clip only lasted 40 seconds but it lit up the internet. The track that followed the buzz, called All These Funds, flipped the lens from portrait to landscape as he debuted a bleak, distinctly British counterpoint to Migos’s glitzier take on trap. People wanted more. But then Clavish clammed up.