Breaking into the rap game is tough,
but it’s even harder for artists from the UK
to build an audience in America.
That’s what makes Central Cee’s come up so insane.
He went from hustling in the streets of London
to rocking the stage at Irving Plaza in New York
and racking up hundreds of millions of streams,
and this is the wild story of how he got there.
Cee came up in the West end of London
and was mostly raised by his single mother who had three other sons.
They moved to a rough area called Shepherd’s Bush when he was a kid,
but luckily Cee’s dad exposed him to the music
that would eventually help make him a star.
When Cee would visit his dad
he heard everything from reggae to dancehall music,
but American hip hop is what made the biggest impact on him.
Back in the day,
Cee actually tried working a normal job at a shoe store but after three weeks,
he saw how little cash it was bringing in
so he decided to quit and hopped in the booth instead.
A lot of people have claimed that he’s an industry plant
because of how fast he blew up over the last two years,
but Cee has actually been in the game since he was 14 years old
and has been grinding for a long time.
The first time he got any exposure was in 2015
after he was featured on the Ain’t on Nuttin’ Remix
with other UK artists like J Hue.
That led to another feature with the rapper Dave,
and in August 2016
he dropped his debut solo single Pull Up.
Cee kept hustling in the industry,
but it took a few years before he really started popping.
Before 2020
he sounded like a regular trap rapper using autotune,
but then the pandemic hit and changed everything.
Everyone started using social media a lot more in 2020,
and Cee saw the opportunity to reach a whole new audience.
He switched up his style completely and dropped the drill track Day in the Life -
and that’s when everyone in the industry started paying attention.
The track ran up big numbers and has over 70 million views on YouTube.
Cee kept the momentum up with a few more singles,
and by 2021
he was one of the hottest rappers in the country.
Another thing that helped his career take off like crazy
was when Cee linked up with a London streetwear company called Trapstar.
They’re one of the hottest brands on the market,
and they ended up making the official merch for Cee’s debut mixtape Wild West.
The viral buzz and clothing deal gave Cee a huge push,
and when the mixtape dropped in March 2021
it debuted at #2 on the UK Albums chart.
But Cee isn’t just focused on the music.
Drake gave him a cosign for his rapping,
and then a month later Cee made his modeling debut
for Drake’s Nike X Nocta clothing line.
2021 was huge for Cee,
but in 2022 he took everything to the next level.
Last year he dropped his second mixtape
in February and hit #1 on the UK chart.
Cee had been grinding for years,
and everything was finally starting to pay off.
Instead of taking some time to celebrate,
Cee stayed on his grind and dropped his biggest single yet
just a few months after his second mixtape.
The track Doja debuted at #2 on the UK Singles chart,
and Cee pushed it even harder by linking up with Cole Bennet for the music video.
Doja popped off like crazy all over the world,
and Cee followed it up with a surprise EP
and another hit in December when he released the track Let Go.
2022 made it clear that Cee was gonna be one of the first UK drill artists
to make it big in the US,
and at the end of the year
he became the first UK rapper to ever rack up
one billion streams on Spotify within a year.
But even though he’s becoming an international star,
Cee still has some serious issues in the streets back in the west end of London.
One of the dudes who helped kick off the drill wave in the UK
is a rapper named Digga D.
Digga has been popping off since 2017
when his 1011 crew started dropping some of the wildest tracks in UK rap.
Digga and Cee came up in the same area and even went to the same school,
but their street ties turned them into opps
and led to Cee’s younger brother getting stabbed.
Digga lived in a neighborhood called Ladbroke Grove,
which is only five minutes from where Cee grew up in Shepherd’s Bush.
Back in the day
both areas were allegedly ran by a crew called 916,
but around 2016 some internal beef caused a split between them.
916 broke up and divided into three sets.
The dudes from Ladbroke Grove started going by the name 1011,
and the 916 members from Shepherd’s Bush split into two crews -
12 World and 12 Anti.
Digga and other rappers from 1011 blew up
and put UK drill on the map.
But just like American drill artists,
they still had a foot in the streets
and ended up getting booked by the police.
In November 2017,
Digga and some homies got stopped and arrested by the cops
for carrying machetes and baseball bats.
They tried to claim they were just going to shoot a music video,
but the cops said they were planning to attack 12 World
and booked them all on conspiracy to commit violent disorder.
Digga was only 17 at the time
so he got off easy with just a one year sentence,
but the arrest had a major impact on his career.
When the court heard how violent Digga’s music was
and that he was talking about real crimes going down in the city,
they decided to pull four of his hottest tracks off YouTube.
Plus they banned Digga from writing bars about his opps
or any more real street situations going down in the city.
Digga and Cee were already on opposite sides of the beef
between Ladbrook Grove and Shepherd’s Bush -
but in 2018 the beef got personal
after Digga was released from prison.
On November 30th, 2018,
Cee was hanging out with his younger brother
and some homies when Digga and another dude allegedly rolled up on them
and started an argument.
That’s when Digga pulled out a knife
and allegedly stabbed Cee’s brother under the shoulder,
then took off running while Cee and his bro looked for help.
Digga and his homie were both arrested for the stabbing,
but they ended up beating the charge due to lack of evidence.
Even though Digga was ordered not to rap about any street activities,
he allegedly admitted to stabbing Cee’s brother
on a couple of tracks that leaked last year.
In one of the songs he says
“Who the f*** is Central Cee?
The only Wild in West is me
We cheffed his brother, went to jail
But still took the not guilty plea.”
Cheffed and chinged are London slang for stabbing,
and two days later another track leaked where Digga rapped
“Don’t compare me to Central Cee
He just stood there and watched when we chinged his brother
I went to jail for that little f*****
I still came home to the nicest supper.”
Cee allegedly responded on the track Cold Shoulder and said
“Last time I let that slide,
but this time I ain’t gonna let that run
They made a diss track,
that s*** was too whack to get a response
It’s sad ‘cat I love my hood where I’m from
But that place ain’t where I belong.”
It’s not clear if the bar was aimed at Digga,
but he sent a clear shot on the track End of the Beginning
when he said
“See the way I chop it,
would’ve thought I had a black belt
I don’t even need practice,
I’m a natural
I wanna hit Tennessee,
and don’t mean Nashville.”
Cee was rapping about a model named Tennessee Thresher,
who Digga used to be in a relationship with.
Digga didn’t clap back with another diss,
but he did clown Cee for coming at him through Tennessee
instead of sending straight shots.
Cee is affiliated with a lot of dudes from 12 Anti
but it doesn’t seem like he’s willing to crash out like Digga has before.
He used to move a little bit of weight in the streets to make ends meet,
but Cee has never been a real violent dude making headlines
for carrying machetes around.
At this point he’s one of the most successful UK rappers of all time,
and there’s no telling how far he can take it
if he stays focused on the music.
He’s already winning awards and breaking records -
and if he keeps the pace up
he could become the first UK drill artist to hit the mainstream in America.
And besides racking up huge numbers for himself,
Cee has even bigger plans for the future.
Last month he told British Vogue
that he wants to start his own label
and give other artists the opportunity to pop off
and make their own lane in the industry.
What’s even crazier about Cee taking over the game
is the fact that he’s still independent
and doesn’t plan on signing with a major label.
He has a distribution deal to help release his new projects,
but Cee still owns 100% of his music
and has total control over his career.
It’s pretty rare for an independent artist to pop off and keep the momentum going,
and the fact that he’s the first UK rapper to hit a billion Spotify streams in a year
proves that he’s doing something right.
A lot of people started calling Cee an industry plant after he blew up in 2020,
but after you learn about his backstory and how long he’s been grinding -
it actually took him way longer to reach the top than a lot of other artists.
He almost gave up in 2019,
but luckily he stayed on the grind and took UK drill to a whole new level.