Central Cee dropped his long-awaited debut album Can’t Rush Greatness on Friday (Jan. 24) via CC4L and Columbia Records.
The 17-track LP features previously released singles “BAND4BAND” with Lil Baby, “Gen Z Luv” and “GBP,” featuring 21 Savage. “BAND4BAND” hit No. 1 on the U.K. Hip-Hop and R&B Singles chart and reached No. 3 on the U.K. Singles chart. In the U.S., the collab reached No. 2 on Rhythmic Airplay, No. 6 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Can’t Rush Greatness includes more collabs with Young Miko (“Gata”), Dave (“CRG”), Lil Durk (“Truth in the Lies”) and Skepta (“Ten”). Cench and Dave’s track arrives two years after their joint four-track EP Split Decision, which featured the summer hit “Sprinter,” which became the longest running No. 1 rap song in the U.K. with its 10-week reign. “Sprinter” also reached the top 10 of the Billboard Global 200.
The U.K. MC’s (real name Oakley Neil Caesar-Su) first full-length album also arrives three years since his last solo mixtape 23, which included the PinkPantheress-sampling hit “Obsessed With You,” which topped the U.K. Hip-Hop and R&B Singles chart (six weeks) and U.K. Independent Singles chart.
“With the mixtapes, I was living in [the same] house I grew up in,” Cench said in his Dazed cover story last fall. “Now we’ve elevated, we’re actually musicians. There were times it was hard to say man’s a musician. I was just a guy that [went into the] studio [sometimes]. Now, I’m an artist.”
Listen to Can’t Rush Greatness below.
