The Clutch

The Clutch was an American collective of songwriters and record producers based in Atlanta, consisting of Candice Clotiel "Gg" Nelson, Ezekiel "Zeke" Lewis, Patrick Michael "J. Que" Smith, Balewa Muhammad and Keri Hilson. They are responsible for a series of successful singles including Omarion's "Ice Box", Ciara's "Like a Boy", Timbaland's "The Way I Are", Britney Spears' "Radar" and Justin Bieber's "One Less Lonely Girl".

Any 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 launched many successful record producers, including: Calvo Da Gr8 ("Like a Boy"), Bigg D ("Wrong When You're Gone") and most notably Hit-Boy ("Forever", "Hey Young Girl"). The Clutch also wrote songs for some of the most successful producers in modern music including Timbaland, Danja, Bryan-Michael Cox, Bloodshy & Avant and Tricky Stewart.^[1][2]

In June 2023, it was revealed that Clutch member Ezekiel Lewis was named President of Epic Records.^[3] Prior to this, 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]