Bambino Qadr is known in the UK underground due to his unique flow, melodic rapping style as well as his close relationship with Central Cee. In our interview he shared his insights into his journey, early influences and the various challenges he has faced within the music industry.

Growing Up: A Journey Through London and Brighton  

Bambino’s story began in East London before moving to Brighton as his father had worries that he’d end up doing street activities like his older brother. In Brighton he encountered a striking cultural contrast and different outlook of life. Bambino talks on meeting his ex-best friend Central Cee around Brighton after listening to his #StreetHeat freestyle on Link Up TV. Bambino made the connection after giving Cench his flowers for his performance and the pair ended up going to the studio the same day, sparking what would be a fruitful friendship which would remain strong until 2022!.

The duo would end up attending numerous shows together, attend studio sessions together as well as do multiple tracks together, the most notable being Jugg which was released in 2019 (The pair had a few other tracks together such as Tr4p, Free it up & Wavy yute; however they’ve been taken down, mostly likely during Central Cee’s rebrand before he blew in 2020). Bambino stated that the pair became like brothers as “he’d stay at my house and I’d stay at his” and had met each other’s family members. 

This friendship had strong foundations and both were making good moves in their career with Central Cee having his big breakthrough with his two hit singles “Day in a life” and “Loading” reaching top 20 in the UK charts. Central Cee would continue to to keep up his consistency with more hit singles like “Obsessed with you”, “Eurovision” and “Let go” doing crazy numbers. After Cench’s success he decided to create some ventures one being his clothing brand called Syna world and the other being Live Yours Music group which currently has artists such as A2 Anti & Kirbs under its roster. 

Bambino Qadr joined Live Yours as an unofficial member and would come with Central Cee and Ybeez to shows, tours and music videos. The relationship turned when Bambino felt as if Live Yours was benching him and not giving him opportunities to release music under his backing; in addition he communicated his unhappiness stating that if Cench was to break Live yours artists one by one that he’d rather leave the group and move on amicably but Central Cee & his manager reassured him otherwise. “I gave up two years of my life” said Bambino recounting how he was benched whilst at Live Yours; additionally he said how it was hard to network whilst at events due to people only wanting to work with him due to his relationship with Central Cee. 

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when an A&R contacted Bambino Qadr stating that he could get him a deal for £250k to do a project with the condition that Central Cee features on one of the songs. This proposal excited Bambino as this life changing money which could change the life of him & his family! When Bambino Qadr told this information to Central Cee he simply responded (We can do it ourselves). This hurt Bambino as he was already feeling benched and uncared for by Cench due to an incident that occurred at a studio session where Ybeez invited him but Central Cee seemed shocked and surprised to see him come which made him feel more uneasy about their situation; However this comment was the nail in the coffin due to the fact that Central Cee knew that this deal was life changing money for him. 

From that point Bambino was done and decided to publicly part ways with Live Yours by dropping his single “Live by the gun”,  interviews with Azz (Mr Harsh reality) as well as interviews on our independent platform which you can watch here. 

The tale doesn’t end here as Bambino Qadr claimed that due to the above reasons Ybeez (Central Cee’s manager) blackballed him and prevented him from getting opportunities with A&R’s and others saying that some even told him that outright. He even accused him of messing up opportunities he already had in motion!

Central Cee would later respond to Bambino Qadr on one of his songs on his Number 1 debut album “Can’t Rush Greatness”. The song in question is called “Don’t know anymore” where he replies in the last verse saying:

“Now my bredrin dissed me and tryna go viral ’cause he ain’t blown yet, how is that my fault?

I thought you was Christian, why don’t you move like Matthew, Phillip, disciple?

But you wan’ snake man, move like Judas ’cause you ain’t blew, it’s a fuckin’ vio

And we’re in London, bare opportunity, it’s not like we live in Ohio

I booked hotels and flights to all of these shows and brought you to all of these countries

Say thank you and pretend that you’re grateful, but when I turn man’s back, say fuck me

Whole six months livin’ at your mum’s, we was with big bro on our own, it was us three

Shouldn’t ever bite the hand that feeds you, I leave man starvin’ cah you’re too hungry

I said that I got you, but you didn’t trust me, I would’ve, but you didn’t give me the chance

You can ask any one of the mandem now if I ever left ’em in the dark

Whatever’s meant to be will be, I can’t turn back time or dwell on the past

But I sometimes wonder, “Could have I got this far without losin’ my dog?”

Many people talk negatively about Central Cee with him also falling out with another rapper called Kairo Keyz. Some say Kairo Keyz & Cench fell out because he left him behind as he began blowing up but Bambino Qadr says that they fell out because Kairo Keyz got upset about Central Cee not reposting one of his songs. My personal opinion is that all three parties didn’t communicate their plans and concerns effectively, thus destroying the relationship they had at a point. They Cench & Bambino seem to have a certain level of love for each other and we hope one day that they can reconcile the issue once and for all.