There’s no doubt 2023 has been a breakthrough year for Clavish. It began with hitting #4 with his widely praised album debut, Rap Game Awful, and was followed by a sold-out eight-date tour that included two shows in London and a #8 hit with D-Block Europe, “Pakistan.” Clavish played the main stage at Wireless and headlined the BBC Radio 1Xtra stage at Reading and Leeds. And at press time, Rap Game Awful—which features a host of collaborations with British hip-hop talent―was the biggest-selling U.K. debut of 2023 and heading toward silver status.

Clavish signed to Polydor in early 2021. His A&R manager, Piers Haynes, says that his development since then has been about “retaining credibility, ensuring that we’re connecting with the streets as well as a wider audience.” They’ve achieved this via records like “4 of Us” f/Rimzee, Tiny Boost and Young Teflon and “Rocket Science” f/D-Block Europe, as well as writing sessions with TSB, Hoskins, Two Inch Punch, Tay Keith, Whyjay & Litek, M1OnTheBeat, Jacob Manson and Kyle Evans.

For Haynes, Clavish “embodies everything that defines what a true artist is―vision, authenticity, honesty, originality.” He continues, “His catalog speaks for itself. He has depth and flare and is truly exceptional.”

According to Polydor Director of Marketing Jade Bradshaw, “Clavish has set the bar pretty high for himself. In the last six months alone he’s shown versatility, an unmatched work rate and, most importantly, huge amounts of growth, which is all reflected in his becoming the biggest breakthrough of the year across all genres.”

STATS

Streams: 250m; 2.3m monthly Spotify listeners

Charts: #4 album; two Top 10 & three Top 40 singles

Social media: 44m YouTube views

TEAM

Management: Marlon Boakye, Rif Jung

Label: Polydor, A&R: Piers Haynes

Publisher: Shauni Caballero, Sony Music Publishing

Agent: Austin Tobias, Craig D’Souza, WME