London, UK · uk drill · uk rap

Central Cee

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The most commercially agile voice in UK drill — melodic, conversational, and unusually good at making a local sound travel.

Central Cee, born Oakley Neil Caesar-Su in 1998, is from Shepherd's Bush in west London. He built an audience through freestyles and loose singles, appearing on the underground platform BL@CKBOX early on, before breaking through in 2020 with the drill tracks "Day in the Life" and "Loading."

His 2021 mixtape Wild West drew wide attention, and the follow-up, 23, released the next year, went straight to number one on the UK Albums Chart. He works in a melodic strain of UK drill, delivering conversational verses over sparse, sliding basslines, built around hooks that carry beyond the genre's usual audience.

The single "Doja" peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and became, for a time, the most-streamed UK rap song on Spotify. "Sprinter," a 2023 collaboration with Dave, gave him his first UK number one, holding the top spot for ten weeks, the longest run for a rap song in UK chart history, before later overtaking "Doja" as the most-streamed UK rap track of all.

In 2024 he released "Band4Band" with Lil Baby, which reached number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest chart position for a UK rap single there, and number three in Britain. His debut album, Can't Rush Greatness, followed in 2025 on Columbia Records, becoming his second UK number one and reaching the top ten of the Billboard 200, a first for a UK rap album in the US.

His verses often reference his mixed Irish and Guyanese background and his life in west London. Before music took hold, he left school at sixteen, worked briefly in a shoe shop, and by his own account spent time selling drugs, an experience he has said many people from his background go through.

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