Whatever you may think of Can’t Rush Greatness, Central Cee is right. You cannot do anything to speed up the process of being perfect. The UK drill rapper has been clear this is not an all-consuming career but something he is interested in, a style of work he has pursued for over a decade and is now comfortable in pushing to the next level with his debut album. It would be all too easy to grasp at the low-hanging fruit a title like Can’t Rush Greatness presents. But some impressive features from 21 Savage and Lil Baby, in name alone, are bold pushes from Cee. There is a firm mystery Cee creates here, despite being open about his past, about what has formed his career so far.
Can’t Rush Greatness is sloppy in spots – that much is clear from the first moments of a rather lazy and repetitive production style – but his lyrical concepts, his tones and the occasion he rises to, are solid. Opener No Introduction goes from relatively plain suggestions to comments which kick at the UK as a place to live. It is not like you see in the movies, and as generalised a suggestion this is, the conviction Cee performs it with is half the battle. There is a swagger which in some cases feels like braggadocious pandering, like 5 Star and the Aitch mention. Does a listener care as much about awards ceremonies as the artist? Not by the sounds of it. Fame is the aim, rather than the creative pursuit, and this is a disappointing drive through the album, ironic or not. Private jets, chefs and those horrid collaborations with The Kid Laroi are still in mind.
For a man who has spoken of the many influences in his life, from the dancehalls of Shepherd’s Bush to the reggae and American hip-hop his father showed him, there is little of it on Can’t Rush Greatness. Vulnerability of this style can never extract itself from the suffering from success style. Can’t Rush Greatness hopes to preserve Cee as a talent to watch grow, rather than expect to flourish on his first try. Generic comments on a way of living in the UK are heard on Gata and, like many of the songs found here, make little difference in the wider scope of cultural commentary. Cee can relay those trips to Nando’s and personal disappointments in as similar a form as he likes, repetitive lyrics and a lack of venom in what he wants to say drag Can’t Rush Greatness down. Club-going inevitabilities and the soft cultural divide of those across the pond on St. Patrick’s is to explore a culture which, to be blunt, is generic. Trips to chain restaurants, braggadocious assessments of cash being the king of PureGym-going, Canada Goose-wearing groups.
His cadence and how Cee carries these tones is exceptional, it is just a shame most of it is mushy, messy mixtures and relatively plain writing. Cee may be an open book but he is not adding anything new to a long-running conversation. Whatever the storytelling Cee may have, irrespective of the keen ear he has for a vocal performance which can carry weaker, copied messages, Can’t Rush Greatness is a tiring, repetitive piece which cannot break from the cringe-inducing (GBP, CRG) or the rehashes of bubble-bursting fame (5 Star and Top Freestyle). There is not enough variety. Even if there were, it does not aid the lyrical dullness, the revolving door of egotistical self-belief and humbling attempts at linking back to drug deals and male gaze genericism leaves nothing to the imagination, and so attention drifts to some muddled mixing and some horrendously basic beats and writing points. Objectification, tough childhoods, and close encounters with crime. All of it rings true, but none of it explains the rot. Can’t Rush Greatness is, at its best, a very scrappy sound which Cee can build from. Repetition is the big mistake Cee makes.
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
