Central Cee may have finally solved the puzzle that generations of U.K. rappers before him have attempted to solve: how does a Brit break America?
The West London native’s aptly-titled debut album Can’t Rush Greatness, released to high praise and fanfare in late January, has just done what no other U.K. rap album has ever done.
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The 17-track project, which traces his hard-fought journey from trappin’ to rappin’ over luxurious, speaker-knocking drill beats, has debuted at number 9 on this week’s Billboard 200 after earning nearly 37,000 equivalent units in the U.S., including 10,000 in pure sales.
It’s the first time that a British MC has cracked the top 10 of America’s albums chart.
“It’s a pivotal, game-changing milestone for U.K. rap,” DJ Semtex, one of Britain’s biggest and longest-serving Hip Hop DJs and radio hosts, tells HipHopDX. “It’s a reflection of how far our scene has evolved and what is now a possibility. This event will inspire more generations of artists, producers, DJs, and execs from the U.K. to go harder.”
Only one other rapper from across the pond has come close in the past. Tinie Tempah’s Disc-Overy peaked at number 21 on the Billboard 200 back in 2010, helped by club-friendly hits like “Pass Out” and “Written in the Stars” — the latter of which also made a considerable dent on the Billboard Hot 100, climbing to number 12.
Four years earlier, The Streets (a.k.a. Mike Skinner) enjoyed modest success with The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, which reached number 68 on the chart.
But by and large, U.K. rappers have struggled to make a commercial dent in America.
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Before Can’t Rush Greatness, Skepta’s 2016 LP Konnichiwa looked poised to break new ground across the Atlantic. It boasted the summer anthem “Shutdown,” which both sampled and was supported by Drake, who has served as U.K. rap and Grime’s biggest champion in North America over the last decade (his Boy Better Know tattoo attests to that).
The album also featured collaborations with Pharrell, A$AP Nast and A$AP Bari — affiliates of A$AP Rocky, with whom Skepta would later team up for “Praise the Lord (Da Shine),” still the best performing single of his career (on both sides of the Atlantic).
Yet Konnichiwa only managed to reach number 160 on the Billboard 200.
It’s been a similar story with other buzzworthy rap albums to come out of Britain in recent years. Dave’s We’re All Alone in This Together maxed out at number 10 on Billboard’s bubbling-under-the-surface Heatseekers chart, while Little Simz’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert peaked at number 22 on the Top Album Sales chart and number 45 on Independent Albums chart.
None of Stormzy‘s three albums, including the BRIT Award-winning Gang Signs & Prayer, have sold enough in the U.S. to appear on any Billboard chart. And despite going number one in the U.K. with 2020’s Edna and trading bars with Drake on “Only One Freestyle,” Headie One has also struggled to break the Billboard charts.
Other legendary pioneers like Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Giggs and Kano, as well as newer stars such as J Hus, AJ Tracey and Lady Leshurr, have also struggled to put up substantial numbers in the States, despite enjoying success on home soil.
Not that U.K. rap (and its many offshoots) should be judged by its commercial performance overseas, nor does the scene — which has grown massively over the last decade — rely on the approval of its American forefathers like it may have done in the past.
But this dearth of U.K. rap albums making a dent in the U.S. underscores a long-standing disconnect that has plagued British MCs — one fueled by differences in accents, lingo, rhythms and often outdated cultural stereotypes. The jokes about 21 Savage trading glocks and switches for 17th Century muskets and bayonets after it was revealed that he was born in London deepened the feeling that America still doesn’t take its English cousins all the way seriously.
That’s why Can’t Rush Greatness is such a watershed moment.
Why Central Cee is enjoying more success in the U.S. than other U.K. rappers can be attributed to a number of factors, starting with the foundations laid by both himself and his predecessors.
“The arrival of Dizzee Rascal in the early 2000s was a lyrical ground zero. He is a genre-defining mic controller whose DNA can be heard throughout eras of Grime and U.K. rap. He paved the way for most of the U.K. rap lyricism you hear today,” Semtex explains.
“2015 was the U.K. rap renaissance. We saw the emergence of subgenres such as U.K. Drill and Afro Swing. Skepta inspired the world with his Konnichiwa album. Drake collaborating with U.K. rappers directed global attention to our scene, and we witnessed the rise of our own big three — J Hus, Dave and Stormzy — who inspired the following 10 years of U.K. rap.”
“Central Cee embodies all of this cultural influence within his artistry,” the Capital Xtra host continues. “It’s why he is rated by the scene and his peers. He is a respected wordsmith who constantly builds and contributes to the culture that he is a part of.
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“His success in the U.S. could be attributed to timing, his relentless work ethic, being an intuitive marketeer in touch with Gen Z and how they consume music. It might be down to the that fact ‘Doja’ was an incredible, audacious U.K. rap moment that replayed a U.S. Hip Hop anthem [Eve and Gwen Stefani’s ‘Let Me Blow Ya Mind’] or that Cench created an international hit with ‘BAND4BAND’ [with Lil Baby]. I think it’s all of this.”
It also helps that Central Cee has courted — and catered to — an American audience more than perhaps any of his peers. Although he’s formed a potent partnership with Dave that has broken records back home, he’s racked up collaborations with some of the hottest rappers in the game in recent years, including Drake, J. Cole, Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Lil Durk and Ice Spice. And not just because he could meet their fee.
“I met Central Cee with Drake at St. Barts on a boat. I didn’t even know he rapped. He was just a cool n-gga and we chopped it up. Once I figured out who he was, we just locked in,” Baby explained in a recent interview with Complex.
Cench also attempted to bridge the gap in a viral freestyle on Power 106’s L.A. Leakers in 2022 in which he brilliantly broke down the differences between English and American slang. In an interview with The Guardian the following year, he even admitted that he takes foreign ears into consideration when writing rhymes: “I’ll tell you this in a mathematical way: when I rap, I never really end my lyrics on a word that could be misconstrued through my accent. I’ll never end saying ‘matter’ like ‘matt-uh.’ If an American sang, ‘Bitch is gay,’ it would sound the same way how I say it.'”
Aside from his musical ability, quiet confidence and runway-meets-roadman style (which has led to collaborations with Nike, Tommy Hilfiger and Drake’s Nocta, as well as a Vogue magazine cover), Central Cee has also benefitted from wider shifts in the music industry.
As Semtex explains, “The door was always open. Artists such as Dizzee Rascal, Skepta, Giggs, D-Block Europe, Skepta and Little Simz have been building alliances with U.S. artists for years. The difference now is that the door has been kicked off thanks to streaming and TikTok.
“Platforms have eliminated traditional barriers to entry and created an international level playing field for artists. Over the last six months, U.S. labels and distributors are increasingly watching what is happening within the U.K. rap market. They are approaching U.K. rappers with deals and providing access to the U.S. market.”
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With a world tour set to begin in April, featuring 19 dates across North America, Central Cee is poised to further conquer the States in 2025. The question that now poses U.K. rap is: will his success open the floodgates for more artists to follow behind? Or is he just an exception to the rule? Semtex firmly believes that Cench is just the beginning.
“Economical and tech developments aside, this is far from a one-off event,” he says. “There are many great evolving U.K. rap artists on the rise. There are a lot of great U.K. rap albums dropping in 2025, with Dave’s being greatly anticipated. Wale told me that this is going to be the year that Dave will blow up in the U.S.”
