Swerving Lil Yachty’s main stage performance at this year’s Wireless Festival in favour of British MC Cadet, I arrived at the Pepsi stage to find only his crew present. Upon further investigation, I found that to my surprise Cadet had vaulted into the middle of the crammed, sweaty crowd, where he was singing at the top of his lungs. I’d later discover that the emotional context surrounding it would make this his favourite performance so far.
“Performing is my time to give back and if I’m not near fainting when I’m coming off the stage it wasn’t worth it,” he explains. Observing just how the crowd reacted to the lyrics of a man that honestly describes in his songs the good, the bad and the ugly within himself makes it apparent that it is Cadet’s ability to lyrically explore his vulnerability with such instropection that has propelled him from being ‘the guy that raps on beats’ to the iTunes’s chart.
“My music is a lot different to how it would have been before,” he says in conversation, and that’s precisely what you may expect from his new project ‘Commitment II’. Still strongly grounded by the kind of gripping, unapologetic wordplay that has made him a household name, Cadet explores relationships with women, family, the impact of his surroundings while growing up, and confesses his love for the superfluous. All are approached with maturity and reflection; a tell-tale sign of his development as an artist – as is the carefully-curated list of contributors [Shakka, Konan, Ghetts & Sangeet] to the ten track EP.
“Your ego should only be allowed to be inflated by real interactions,” he adds when we discuss how far social media can distort reality, especially among the younger generation. His views on his subject are explored in the Konan-featured ‘Instagram Girls’, as well as on ‘Friday to Sunday’ with Shakka and the heartfelt ‘Little Bro’. Cadet puts an end to the cousin-to-cousin-feud with Krept with ‘No More Letters’, and delivers a darker follow up to 2016’s pledge of allegiance to his Gipsy Hill crew with ‘Gipset Flow Pt. 2’. ‘Don’t Take It Personal’ [ft. Ghetts] is undoubtedly the jewel in ‘The Commitment 2”s crown; three minutes of exactly what you’d hope for from the duo of MCs, Rude Kid’s strings and brass heightening the rapid-heavy back & forth rhyme sequences.
Stream ‘The Commitment 2’ below via SoundCloud, click here to pick a retailer of your choice.
Words by Catarina Ramalho.
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