walking upstream…
Central Cee
photo: 200izo · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Central Cee
Oakley Caesar-Su, better known as Central Cee, turned Shepherd's Bush drill into a pop-chart Trojan horse, threading UK street reportage through radio-ready hooks and cross-Atlantic flows. Breakout singles "Day in the Life" and "Loading" (2020) established him as UK drill's most melodic voice, and mixtapes Wild West and 23 carried him to two UK Number One albums before Can't Rush Greatness (2025) became the first Top 10 UK rap album on the US Billboard 200. He raps with a diarist's specificity about hustling, heartbreak, and fame, wearing his grime, dancehall, and American rap influences as openly as he once wore the teenage nickname he built his stage name from.
the sound in question
2022
DojaCentral Cee
walk the tributaries ↓
Skepta2010s · Grime / Hip hop
Central Cee has said Skepta is the "main reason" he started making music, having discovered him through Tim Westwood freestyle clips as a teenager; the clipped, hyper-confident bar structure and reactive, crowd-baiting punchlines Central Cee builds his verses around trace back to that grime education.
listen: upstream & heresource: Complex – Central Cee shouts out Skepta for early influence ↗
2015
ShutdownSkepta
2020
LoadingCentral Cee
listen forCue up Skepta's "Shutdown" and then Central Cee's "Loading" — the same coiled, staccato delivery and quotable opening bars built to detonate in a room full of people, just resprayed with a drill 808.
Drake2010s · Hip hop / Contemporary R&B / Pop rap
By his own account Central Cee first picked up a pen at fourteen chasing the sound of American rappers like Drake, and the confessional, radio-friendly melodicism he layers over drill production — half-sung hooks, plainspoken heartbreak — reads as a direct import of Drake's rap-sung template into a UK drill frame.
listen: upstream & here
2011
Marvin's RoomDrake
2021
Obsessed With YouCentral Cee
listen forPlay Drake's "Marvin's Room" next to Central Cee's "Obsessed With You" — both ride a woozy, late-night melodicism where the rapping keeps softening into something closer to singing.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again2010s · Hip hop / Trap / Southern hip hop
Central Cee has named YoungBoy Never Broke Again among his main musical inspirations, and the raw, diaristic street narration YoungBoy built his catalogue on — trauma and bravado sung-rapped in the same breath — echoes through Central Cee's more reflective, autotune-streaked verses.
listen: upstream & here
2017
UntouchableYoungBoy Never Broke Again
2025
No IntroductionCentral Cee
listen forSet YoungBoy's "Untouchable" against Central Cee's "No Introduction" — both open with an unfiltered self-accounting, melody bending around real biography rather than a hook written to please.