'This is the best thing I've ever heard': Clairmont the Second on crafting his bold 3rd album
The Juno-nominated rapper looks back at the 5-year process of making They said it would rain...
Clairmont the Second's latest album, They said it would rain ..., is his first full-length release in four years. On the lush project, named as one of CBC Music's best of the year, songs "effortlessly bleed into each other as the Toronto-based rapper/producer deals with topics like ambition, vulnerability and strength of character for one of his most cohesive projects yet."
In a new interview with The Block, the rapper opens up to host Angeline Tetteh-Wayoe about the lengthy process behind the album, passing on signing to a label and more.
You can hear the full interview above and read an excerpt below.
So let's talk about this new full-length album you have, it's called They said it would rain....
Yeah, it's a project I've been working on for a long time. Five years.
Five years?
Yeah. It was done in 2019 and then I'm like, "More people need to hear what I put together. This is crazy. This is the best thing I've ever heard." So I put out another project in between.
And which one was that one?
That was It's Not How it Sounds. That came out [in] 2020.
Pandemic right?
Yeah, yeah. So this project, because I wanted everyone to hear it and the world was shut down for a couple of years, I spent a lot of time with it, just diving back in and [said], "OK, maybe it's not done. Let me try doing this. Let me try doing that."
If it was done in 2019, you know, five years is a long time for growth as individuals, [to] sort of go back to those songs. Were they completed with lyrics and everything?
So the version that you guys have, I think from that 2019 version, I think three of the songs are on this one. So ... every couple of years, I think I'm done. But also, life is happening at the same time.
Yeah.
So when life is going on, I'm like, "Man, I kind of want to write about this right now." And the project ended up kind of making itself. I usually know I'm making an album, but I don't really know the album I'm making until it's like, done.
That's so interesting because it feels like it's a completed sort of thematic piece of work. And to say that the album made itself would suggest that, you know, there wasn't a lot of thought. But I mean, as a creator, maybe it's just one of those things where you have a vision and therefore everything that's, you know, coming through you, coming out of you, kind of naturally fits your vision.
People have been asking me a lot of questions about specific things I did on the project and, you know, certain production choices. And it's like, it just felt right. It just felt like the thing to do.
You're the vibes guy.
Yeah so, if it's God speaking through me and just like allowing me to play what I play, I think that's how I make all my stuff. It just kind of ... that's what I have to make right now. So even though half these songs didn't make this version, [they] are still going to come out, they're just on later projects because I felt like the project that still needed to be made in 2019 was this one still. It's still the same purpose. It's still the same sound, the same universe, the same world.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length. To hear the full interview, listen to The Block on CBC Music.