The Clutch

The Clutch was an American collective of songwriters and record producers based in Atlanta, composed of Candice Clotiel "Gg" Nelson, Ezekiel "Zeke" Lewis, Patrick Michael "J. Que" Smith, Balewa Muhammad and Keri Hilson. They were on the Billboard Hot 100-top 40 singles Omarion's "Ice Box", Ciara's "Like a Boy", Timbaland's "The Way I Are", and Justin Bieber's "One Less Lonely Girl".

A combination of two or more of the five writers on a song is considered a track "written by the Clutch" as they rarely worked as a complete fivesome. The Clutch wrote songs themselves, but also did so in tandem with fellow commercially successful producers—including Calvo Da Gr8, Bigg D, Hit-Boy, Timbaland, Danja, Bryan-Michael Cox, Bloodshy & Avant and Tricky Stewart—to create several other hit songs.^[1][2]

In June 2023, Clutch member Ezekiel Lewis was named President of Epic Records.^[3] Prior, Lewis had been Vice President and head of A&R at Motown Records from 2011 to 2017 and Vice President of A&R at Epic since 2017.^[4]

^C Single release canceled

^P Promo only or limited release

^BU Reached only Billboard's Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart