Ant Clemons Details

In September 2018, one week before his birthday, the singer-songwriter Ant Clemons got a call from his manager. “He’s like, ‘Pack your bag for Chicago,'” Clemons recalls. “I’m like, ‘Jeremih has a show?’ My manager’s like, ‘He might — but Kanye [West] wants you to be out there.'”

Clemons flew to Chicago and walked into a room with West, Chance the Rapper, and the right-wing pundit Candace Owens. “All I listened to for a while was that Jeremih and Chance Christmas project — I’m in the room with that guy and Kanye West?” Clemons says. “The very first day, we go back and forth just freestyling. They pass me a mic and it’s like, I can’t drop the ball here.”

Over the last two years, Clemons has made the most of opportunities like this one. He’s quietly built a résumé as a writer, contributing to songs by Teyana Taylor, Luke James, Danileigh, Dreezy, and YBN Cordae. And he has exploded on featured appearances with West: “All Mine,” a frenzied, lusty highlight from last year’s Ye, and now “Water,” a reverential, reassuring track on the rapper’s new album Jesus Is King.