Stevie G: Central Cee's new album 'could be an important one for rap' 

Hip-hop has been in somewhat of a vacuum lately. In my opinion, the trap era was a semi golden period where artists such as Migos, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Playboi Carti, Future and others emerged and made great music, while simultaneously we had massive artistic statements that crossed over boundaries by the likes of Kendrick Lamar.

Kanye West continued to make big artistic statements in this era too while Odd Future and Tyler and Earl emerged, as did a whole host of talented women, such as Nicki, Cardi and Megan. Trap music pretty much became the new pop music and artists such as Drake became pop stars, for better or for worse. This is a period that pretty much dominated the last 15 years; before that we had many previous hip-hop eras too.

The 90s had both a boom-bap jazzy sound and a west coast G-funk one, while the south also emerged and laid the groundwork for the modern era with the likes of the Geto Boyz and Outkast and later Three 6 Mafia and others.

We could go further back to the 80s and the different styles of gangster rap and political rap at a time when funk breakbeats ruled, or even to the 70s where disco sometimes provided the backbone to the grooves.

Hip-hop has been developing for over 50 years and it’s now global; our neighbours in the UK have always made great rap records but it’s only recently that the UK scene has gone truly global.

Great rap artists such as Roots Manuva, Rodney P, Skepta, Dizzee Rascal, Blak Twang, Giggs, Kano, Ty, Wiley and many more paved the way, and became hugely influential, but these days the genre has become bigger than ever, and it’s more international too. Central Cee’s eagerly awaited debut album proper, Can’t Rush Greatness, arrives at a time where UK rap is more popular than ever.

Legends such as Dizzee and Skepta are still held in huge esteem, but the newer generation, like Dave and Central Cee, are crossing over in ways previously not possible. “She don’t listen to UK rap if it ain’t Dave or Cench” is a quote from a previous song recorded by these two, and it’s indicative of how big both of them are in the grander scheme of things these days.

Central Cee’s album comes off the back of a hugely successful string of mixtapes and singles that have been massive smashes, so why am I saying rap exists in a vacuum? Well basically, we are lacking a bit of star quality and truly global tastemakers.

We’ve still got Kendrick Lamar at his peak, and globally massive artists such as Travis Scott, Kanye, Drake and many more; but most of them are from previous generations at this stage. There’s a bunch of young girls making waves, like Glorilla, Ice Spice and Sexxy Red, but there remains a vacuum for a truly game-changing star. Doechii is definitely one, and she will most likely blow up even further this year. But we need a few more.

Central Cee has been big for a while, but this album should send things into a newer orbit. It could be an important one for rap, and it might help bring more shine on this side of the world too.

There’s no reason why Jordan Adetunji or Travis or Ellz or Offica or other young Irish rappers can’t go further too; indeed Jordan just dropped his debut mixtape this week too, backed by the global smash ‘Kehlani’.

Central Cee’s early singles were absolute classics, and five years or so on, he’s still a great MC. Sometimes the flow can be a bit repetitive, but he’s got bars forever and lyrically he’s decent too. His choice of samples, beats and guest spots has always been first class, and over the years he’s teamed up with Drake, Dave, Lil Baby and many more on a prolific run of singles, and on this album the feature list is again on point.

Legends such as Skepta and 21 Savage are accompanied by Lil Durk, Baby and regular collaborator Dave, and all bring a much needed variety to the sonic palette.

Musically, it doesn’t stray too far from trap and drill but there’s some wonderful jersey and baile funk influences and plenty of r&b and soul vibes too.

There’s gonna be a lot more hits coming from this album, and it’s likely to do really well commercially. Central Cee is here to stay!