Capricious and anthemic, Clairmont The Second’s ‘they said it would rain…’ is the most dynamic yet balanced project of 2024
Evan Dale // November 9, 2024
It’s cold in Toronto this time of year. Clairmont The Second is colder. It’s been four years since he released his last album, It’s Not How It Sounds, but it’s not like he’s been missing. His brooding basslines and signature synth strokes; his quickfire lyricism with meaningful poetics; his hyphy anthems and emotionally entrenched vocal runs have continued to flood the auditory ether, although in the form of singles and smaller packages rather than the stylistically vast full-length collections he’s released with wavering consistency over the course of a decade or more.
On the shorter side of things, 2021’s no u don’t / inters-ting / mi pce – where Clairmont explored at depth downtempo emotion and a particular confidence with his register – was a strong juxtaposition to the booming and extensive energy from It’s Not How It Sounds just a year prior. In 2022, Full Circle – a four-track EP – navigated the balance between his long-established lyrical prowess, his hi-fi yet nostalgic production, and that same expanding vocalism, now firmly a cornerstone of his ever-evolving sound, and a sonic element worth building a project around. Always the wide-ranging artist at the broadest of definitions, he has grown to exude dynamism with every release and is now refining the balance between the many grey areas of his indefinable sound.
Multihyphenate feels like a cliché in the slash era of artistry, but Clairmont The Second’s skillset is so vast that it feels appropriate to use it if for no other reason than to shorten any further descriptions of his artistic abilities, and to instead focus on his newest project, they said it would rain…. The album four years since his last and five years in the making has – like its creator – changed greatly during that span.
‘The first version of this album was done in 2019, so it's changed a lot through the years,’ he told us as we walked and talked our way through Toronto near the end of Summer. ‘There are songs that are no longer in there, though the oldest song that's on there is from 2019 with some refurbished and retouched aspects to it. So it's been a process. And it's frustrating me at some points.’
And yet, through the frustrations and all the elemental changes he and his work have been through, he still embodies the artistic breadth that has defined him from the beginning. Clairmont The Second is an all-encompassing juggernaut with a stranglehold on every corner of his artistry from production and mixing to lyricism and vocals, that has made waves – and continues to evolve and grow – in every musical space that he’s dipped his toes into since the early 2010’s. they said it would rain… is simply the strongest and most well-balanced expression of his grandiose creative scope to date.
‘It might be too late,’ croons Clairmont on lately – the emotional opener to the album, where, alongside the buoyant vocalism and prose drowning in juxtaposed despair, a composition of downtempo instrumentation, mysteriously floating on an entanglement of jazzy chords and muted brass, welcomes listeners to the project without much fanfare. Instead of an introductory parade, lately feels more like an auditory space necessary to detach from the world around us before diving into the one that Clairmont has created here.
And that detachment proves key, as the project removes itself from any preconceived expectation of what a hip-hop album can be. Instead, they said it would rain… pays no mind to any boundaries or notions that our prior experiences with Clairmont specifically or music more broadly might lead us to assume. He has always been unpredictable, and that has always been a strength. Just listen to the transition from lately to its following cut, trynuh.
Never a stranger to the booming hip-hop anthem, Clairmont’s decade of experience making beats, rapping, and curating addicting hooks over vitriolic basslines makes him a master of the craft. Signature synth strokes imbibing clandestine emotionality weave in and out of dynamic lyrical runs that keep nothing secret. It’s in that juxtaposition between his immersive, thought-provoking bars, his moody beats, and his head-bobbing choruses that keep a listener guessing for what’s coming next. And what comes next is some rare semblance of sonic equilibrium in the course of a Clairmont project.
Through crashsite and the first half of born2b, Clairmont puts on a clinic of the meditative delivery that has defined the consistency in his canon since the beginning. It’s the non-consistency where he quickly evolves into one of the most experimental forces in all of hip-hop. But it’s in the moments of expected immersive storytelling with a classic cadence that at times makes him a model force of steadfastness. But then, just like that, born2b explodes into a fit of drum-and-bass born unpredictability, and they said it would rain… fires forward with the kind of capricious meandering that reminds us all whole the artist really is.
bbhur comes next, delving a listener into the peak of what a hip-hop babymaker can be in the modern era. Silky chord play, a sultry delivery, some impulsive chopped-and-screwed edits, and raw bars bring to mind Kendrick’s Poetic Justice albeit with a much more authentic feel that only an independent artist could bring to the table. And then another pair of auditory 180’s. tenonme comes next, and for any nostalgic hip-hop fan who may be searching for a more creative way to bridge the production of the 2000’s and early 2010’s into the crisp clarity of the modern era, something tells me you may feel the same way. Thudding bass and uneasy chords are dissected by interwoven piano keys and nostalgic synth strokes while Clairmont puts on a clinic of spoon-fed bars.
Then the glistening late 80’s and early 90’s R&B influence of ushudcry show a completely different side of Clairmont’s textural soundscape. Vocals delicate enough to make anyone listening forget not only that Clairmont The Second is a rapper, but that on just the track prior he curated a hard-hitting banger, float effortlessly across a Devin Morrison reminiscent composition that feels as though it was pulled straight from the rainy streets of some long forgotten Jodeci music video.
happy is another spell of Clairmont equilibrium, where we expect to find him from time to time before completely switching the script again. cloudz is an understated, particularly poetic piece of piano-ridden emotionality that recalls the somber tracks from Kota the Friend’s rainy day raps in all the best ways. Here, Clairmont feels the most vulnerable he ever, and finds a new version of musical grit that most artists don’t have the skillset to stand on. Soft and simple is the most challenging kind of music to make after all. And yet then again, maybe the most challenging hurdle to overcome with one’s music is to wildly swing one’s skillset, one’s emotions, one’s style of delivery and lyricism without ever losing the heading of an overarching project. And with they said it would rain… which ends on the heralding exclamation point of validate, Clairmont has achieved balance and continuity without ever adhering to one sonic space, without ever allowing himself to be defined by one style, and without ever being compelled by one emotion.