NEW MUSIC | CADET’S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED DEBUT ALBUM THE RATED LEGEND IS OUT TODAY

By Rishma Dhaliwal • On What is New

Listen here

Today, Cadet’s crit­ic­ally acclaimed debut album The Rated Legend, is released via Under­rated Legends, while the trib­utes to the renowned “Under­rated Legend” flood in (see below).

Cadet’s The Rated Legend album is A&R’d and Exec­ut­ively Pro­duced by Cadet’s cous­in, Krept (of Krept & Kon­an). It fea­tures Cadet’s Plat­in­um cer­ti­fied single ‘Advice’ and posthum­ously released ‘Gang Gang’ along­side pre­vi­ously unre­leased mater­i­al from Cadet’s record­ing ses­sions. Pro­duced by Show N Prove, Cer­ti­fied Bangerz, Mr Wonda and Da Beat­freakz among oth­ers, guest artists on the album include: Young Adz, Swarmz, Wretch 32, Chip, Tion Wayne, Deno and Krept. See below for full track­list­ing and quotes from some of those involved in the mak­ing of The Rated Legend.

The pro­claimed “Under­rated Legend”, Cadet, star­ted out in the South Lon­don based Gip­set crew, with his cous­in Krept, Kon­an and Redz. He began to plough his own path in 2015 with a series of hard-hit­ting free­styles, before releas­ing his acclaimed debut long play­er ‘The Com­mit­ment’ EP in 2016, fol­low up ‘The Com­mit­ment 2’ EP in 2017 and Plat­in­um cer­ti­fied single ‘Advice’ in 2018.

Praised for the pas­sion, power and grip­ping nar­rat­ives of his lyr­i­cism, Cadet was cham­pioned by artists such as Stormzy and Wiley along­side Radio 1/ 1Xtra DJS Charlie Sloth and DJ Sem­tex and received a UEA Award for ‘Best Rap­per’ in 2017. He sup­por­ted Krept & Kon­an on their ‘The Long Way Home Tour’ and Bug­zy Malone on his ‘Walk With Me Tour’, and per­formed at Wire­less Fest­iv­al in 2017.

In Feb­ru­ary 2019 Cadet tra­gic­ally died in a car acci­dent on the way to per­form a head­line show in Stafford­shire. The fol­low­ing month many artists took to the stage of a poignantly sold out Brix­ton Academy for The Rated Legend show held in his hon­our. Those who per­formed included Stormzy, Leth­al Bizzle, Dave, AJ Tracey, Krept & Kon­an, Big Shaq, Afro B, Yun­gen and more, with the pro­ceeds from the show going to char­it­able organ­isa­tion, The Cadet Trust.

THE RATED LEGEND ALBUM TRACK­LIST­ING

  1. Take The Wheel
  2. Dope Boy ft Young Adz & Krept
  3. Sup­port Me
  4. Still ft Wretch 32 
  5. Send Me A Good One
  6. Gimme Space ft Chip
  7. Roley ft Swarmz
  8. Gang Gang
  9. Do what I Like ft Tion Wayne
  10. Speech­less
  11. Dam­ages
  12. The Con­vo (inter­lude) ft Telix­ia Inico
  13. Advice ft Deno

QUOTES FROM CADET’S FAM­ILY & THE RATED LEGEND CON­TRIB­UT­ORS

“I am determ­ined and driv­en to keep Cadet’s name alive and to mak­ing sure I can con­tin­ue what he star­ted and achieved, because I know how much this meant to him. It was a labour of love and pas­sion to cre­ate this pro­ject from just hear­ing ran­dom tracks he recor­ded and turn­ing it into a full body of work. Cadet recor­ded so much good music that it would have felt wrong to have not done this. Cadet was so loved that filling miss­ing verses or hooks from guest artists was easy to do to fin­ish this album. All pro­du­cers and artists done this all for free. That’s love. Cadet would love this album just as much as we do. It has ver­sat­il­ity and really shows his range as an artist. With this album Cadet’s leg­acy will keep going, his name will live on. I have enjoyed every moment of put­ting this album togeth­er with our fam­ily. You will hear why he is no longer under­rated…” — Krept (A&Rd and Exec­ut­ively pro­duced the album and fea­tures on ‘Dope­boy’)

“For me, com­plet­ing this album was my way of mak­ing sure his old and new fans con­tin­ued to glimpse my son’s tal­ent, cre­ativ­ity and pas­sion for his craft, doing some­thing he enjoyed more than any­thing else, per­form­ing with his alter ego Cadet. This album gives us the oppor­tun­ity to intro­duce Blaine Camer­on John­son and Cadet in his most com­fort­able place, behind a micro­phone ” — Paul John­son (Cadet’s fath­er)

“The album com­ing out, for me, is a suc­cess for the fact that we’re get­ting it out for the fans and it’s some­thing that Blaine would have wanted. So, I’m happy that it is out. I’m happy that we’re giv­ing the fans what they wanted and that it’s what Blaine would have done. I think for me the whole pro­cess has been an eye open­er with regards to the artists that have helped. I’m lit­er­ally over­whelmed and can’t thank them enough for all their hard work and ded­ic­a­tion over the past twelve months. Lit­er­ally uncon­di­tion­al love for all of them, for every­body that has helped with the album. And, really just helped the under­rated legend become a legend more in his own right. I just really hope every­one enjoys it, hope­fully there will be more to come, but I just really hope that every­one can see the growth and the change and the hard work that Blaine has put into this since he has star­ted music, ‘till lit­er­ally the day he died.” — Chand­ler (Cadet’s sis­ter)

“I always rated his free­styles espe­cially. Pas­sion. I bumped into Cad one time mid whilst I was online clash­ing every­one… he showed me noth­ing but respect and shook my hand. The respect was mutu­al. Genu­ine brudda. Wish we got a rid­dim done when he was still in this phys­ic­al realm, but his leg­acy shall live on. Krept hit me to be a part of it. I could NEV­ER say no. Had to wack that!!! Rest In Para­dise fam.” — Chip (fea­tures on ‘Gimme Space’)

“Me and Cadet was due a good 1 on 1 spa. It was a hon­our to flex with him on the album. I feel like he was just get­ting star­ted in his career, so to be a part of his dis­co­graphy was a pleas­ure” — Wretch 32 (fea­tures on ‘Still’)

“The nicest guy you could ever meet, prop­er humble about his stuff, about his music just there ready to work man.… Cadet was the kind of artist [where] there was no bound­ar­ies, man. There was no lim­it to who could listen to his music, who could become a fan of his and appre­ci­ate his work. It doesn’t mat­ter what kind of music you’re in to, Grime, Hip Hop, R&B, Hazz. It doesn’t mat­ter as long as you’re liv­ing life and you’re human, and you go through all those emo­tions that we all do, then you would relate, because Cadet had an amaz­ing gift to break down these con­cepts, these day-to-day life con­cepts, in such an amaz­ing and cool, young, fresh way.” — Cer­ti­fied Bangerz (pro­duced ‘Sup­port Me’)

“It’s not even like I wanted to con­trib­ute to the album, I had to con­trib­ute to the album. We came togeth­er, we said we’re gonna make this a force, we’re gonna make this a team. If I wasn’t on this tape, it would have just been just crazy. If you know him, you know me. When we first star­ted there was lit­er­ally nobody there, it was me and him. So, what Cadet means to me? Like that’s fam­ily, he’s lit­er­ally fam­ily.” — Mr Wonda (pro­duced ‘Trust ‘Em’)

ADDI­TION­AL TRIB­UTES TO CADET FROM HIS PEERS

“When I think about Cadet, I think about some­body that was vibrant, full of life [and] had the purest energy… He was run­ning with the ‘Under­rated Legend’ thing, but I really think he was a ‘rated’ legend.” – Ghetts

“Hand on my heart mans nev­er met any­one as clean hearted as this broth­er in my life.” – Stormzy

“Oh Cadet, where do I start? All I can say is every time I saw him, he was just a vibe… he wasn’t scared to smile, he smiles all the time… We are def­in­itely miss­ing one of the key char­ac­ters in this scene that brings a whole dif­fer­ent vibe. He’s known for storytelling and lit­er­ally deliv­er­ing bar for bar… He was a beau­ti­ful soul.” – Stef­flon Don

 “[Cadet] was just very keen on always mak­ing sure that I was push­ing my pen and always giv­ing me advice on what I could do to just bet­ter my skill. He always made it clear to me how import­ant it is to speak on rel­ev­ant issues, things that are hap­pen­ing… He was just always really root­ing for me… I’ve always had so much love for Cadet, always very encour­aging and such a kind heart.” – Ms Banks

 “Across the whole industry it was unan­im­ous that Cadet was such a lovely per­son, he was known to be one of the nicest in the scene… He per­son­ally shined off of his music too. His lyr­ics were always hon­est and authen­t­ic to his story. Cadet has always been known for paint­ing a pic­ture of whatever story he wanted to tell you… What’s for cer­tain is that Cadet’s leg­acy will almost def­in­itely live on… He cer­tainly left the music scene as a ‘Rated’ legend.” – DJ Tar­get

The fol­low­ing two tabs change con­tent below.
Rishma Dhaliwal
My Facebook profileMy LinkedIn profileMy Instagram profile

Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

Read More:

CADET’S DEBUT ALBUM THE RATED LEGEND SET FOR RELEASE ON 10th APRIL 2020 Default ThumbnailWhat is New The Lost Chil­dren Of Babylon (@TheLCOB) ‘Beware of The Zeit­geist’ No Bounds Launch Pic­tures + Video ! Default ThumbnailFOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC WITH MIKEY SMITH

About Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal
Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless. Currently working in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media knowledge to I am Hip Hop and other projects by No Bounds.