Central Cee: Wild West review – gritty streetlevel drill from magnetic talent
Two tracks into 22-year-old west Londoner Central Cee’s punchy debut mixtape, he raps: “Who’s up next? They’re saying it’s Cench / What’s the odds? Place your bets.” By “they” he could equally mean the suburban kids he says have “picked up our language” or the industry execs who have spied a golden egg in the UK’s blossoming drill scene. The odds certainly look good. He’s bagged two Top 20 singles already, and boasts more than 2.7m monthly listeners on Spotify. BBC Radio 1Xtra picked him for the station’s Hot For 2021 shortlist, and he shares reps with Jorja Smith, AJ Tracey, and Stormzy. Warner’s distribution arm, ADA, snapped up the rights to this, his first mixtape.
For the most part, Wild West is UK drill-by-numbers: gliding 808 basslines, stuttering hats, and slick, cascading flows that add polish to Cee’s gritty street-level narration. Central Cee is most interesting when he’s pushing at the edges of that template. The wandering brass lead on his breakout hit Loading or the Spanish guitar on Day in the Life add fresh character to the canvas. When he lowers his voice and switches up his flow – dropping momentarily to a spoken-word cadence on closer Gangbiz – his lyrics gain potency. “Things don’t tend to go my way / I made some bands but the pains stay,” he says. With things now seemingly stacked in his favour, the question is whether Central is willing to take a punt on himself and break out of the mould.