Cadet: Rapper’s rapper who chose vulnerability over machismo

The British rapper Blaine Cameron Johnson, also known as Cadet, will be remembered for his deeply honest and personal lyrics which dealt with sensitive, emotional and under-discussed issues.

He was known best for his most recent single “Advice”, a collaboration with Deno Driz. It peaked at number 27 in the UK chart with 18 million views on YouTube to date after its release in October.

The 28-year-old died when the taxi taking him to a gig at Keele University in Staffordshire collided with another vehicle.

From the age of 16, Johnson began appearing as part of the Gipset crew, a gang of aspiring lyricists based in Gipsy Hill, near Clapham in south London where he was born.

Their freestyles about gang life and living in London gained them a following on social media.

Johnson released his first mixtape Are you Ready in 2008. The crew broke up in 2013 when its members decided to focus on their solo careers. One such member was Johnson’s cousin Casyo “Krept” Johnson, who would go on to become one half of Mobo-winning Grime duo Krept & Konan.

He joined the pair on stage at Wireless festival in July 2015 – and although he had performed with them since his teens, this experience was pivotal, spurring him on to pursue his own music more seriously.

Johnson released his hard-hitting freestyle “Slut” on YouTube later that month. In two years, he would be back on that stage as a solo performer.

“Slut” had over half a million views in just a few months and set a precedent for the way Johnson brought emotion, honesty and lack of bravado to his lyrics.

One such example is the male experience of an abortion: “Now she never told her fam, and I never wanted kids from the start / But the fact that I never had a say, and that’s what really sat on my heart / Like some real s**t, that s**t there had me stressing, cos bare people can’t have kids in the world / So who are we to say no to a blessing?”

Johnson had converted to Islam at age 15, which became a feature of his lyrics. He often used Islamic terminology such as “wallahi”, Arabic for “I swear to God”. Religious themes pervaded his lyrics, as in “Slut”: “But her parents are Moroccan, so they just saw me as a black youte / Now, Alhamdulillah [“praise God”] I’m a revert, but no they didn’t care about deen [“religion”] / They said culture should go with culture, you know? And that’s just how s**t be”.

Johnson was soon earmarked as a rising talent on the UK grime scene and a month after “Slut” was released, he was selected by popular rap YouTube channel Link Up TV to appear in their Behind Barz freestyle series.

His freestyle about his relationship with his father was hailed in the US as “storytelling at its finest” and “better than some rappers’ whole mixtape”.

In Behind Barz, Johnson tells the story of his father being addicted to crack cocaine and selling one of his childhood birthday presents for a fix. But then his father transforms: “See you went from being the guy that I could drop to / Being the guy that I compare God to ... Ya know the s**t that you done for the kid is peak / I can’t even put it into speech.”

Johnson’s initial popularity came through these freestyle videos posted on YouTube, until in 2016 he released his debut EP and first commercial release “The Commitment”. It included features from big names in UK rap such as Donae’o and Konan, the other half of Krept & Konan.

The EP’s final track “Stereotype” captivates the listener for five-and-a-half minutes, despite having no respite in a chorus. Its brave, heartfelt lyrics do not make for easy listening as Johnson expresses regret about his image: “But now look at all this gold in my mouth / It’s f**ked how I be the stereotype / I never finished college, never went uni / I’ve sold drugs and my credit’s so bad / I cheat too, I kinda like beef / And I’ve probably been in about six gangs / I like lighties, I like jewellery / And most of my mandem have been jail.”

After releasing his well-received EP, Johnson signed a deal with Absolute Label Services to manage his label, distribution, social media promotion and video releases. By this point, he had appeared on BBC Radio 1Xtra several times, headlined London’s O2 Academy Islington and supported the likes of Manchester rapper Bugzy Malone and Krept & Konan.

His 2016 cri-de-coeur “Letter to Krept” reached out to the cousin he’d become distanced from. His lyrics candidly express feeling hurt and sidelined by his cousin, who had become internationally renowned, but was not often inviting Johnson to perform alongside him at shows or to feature on his tracks.

It was widely agreed upon in the grime scene that Johnson’s talent was somewhat overlooked and wasn’t getting the recognition it deserved, which prompted his epithet “underrated legend”.

In “Letter to Krept” he also recounts being alarmed to discover that Krept had been friends with a man Johnson’s college girlfriend had cheated on him with. He explains he wasn’t sure if Krept had known of her betrayal and kept it from him. Krept denied this in his side of the story “Letter to Cadet” – “Cuz, you should know me better / Like knew your ex-was cheating on you? / You mad, man? Never.”

In his track, Krept also explains his own anxieties about Johnson’s intentions towards him and his difficulties in assimilating to a life of fame and fortune, unsure of which people in his life were happy for him and which just wanted to freeload off his success.

The cathartic freestyles allow the pair to move beyond their animosity, and “Letter to Krept” concludes with the lines: “When I started loving myself then I could love you like I used to / I’m just glad I’m in the same race as you / And the dream is to go and share first place with you / You know man, you’re my left lung and there ain’t no replacing you.”

In 2018, Johnson released “Closure”, a harrowing true story about a miscarriage, exuding bitter passion and raw emotion. He narrates vividly an evening arriving at his pregnant girlfriend’s house to find her lying on the floor complaining about pain and bleeding.

He rushes her to hospital, where the doctor says she is no longer pregnant. However, Johnson is later told by the girlfriend’s cousin that she had already had an abortion. The miscarriage had been staged and she wasn’t sure if he had been the baby’s father because she’d been unfaithful.

In a 2018 interview with online platform Amaru Don TV, Johnson explained his bitter mindset resulting from various traumatic relationships with women, saying: “I thought that everyone apart from the girls that looked like jezzies [jezebels] had to be good girls. I always thought that women don’t cheat, I thought they can’t do it … [Now] it’s got me to the point where every girl I come across is guilty until proven innocent. Before, I thought the bad ones look like bad ones, man. Now I don’t know what they look like no more. They look just like my mum, just like my sister, just like my auntie, just like the good ones that I’m sure are good.”

Johnson can be viewed as a new, uniquely conscious rapper. While positioning himself apart from those who depict violent, criminal lifestyles, at the same time he is not claiming to be an infallible, unrealistic hero preaching morals from a pedestal. “I try to make sure my music means something,” Johnson told Metro in July 2017. He treads an important line which can be very emotional, and also accurate, humble, and often comedic. He says in the song “Slut”: “Fam the first time I had sex was peak, buss so quick I didn’t know that I beat”. He also acknowledges his imperfections, saying in “Stereotype”: “I’m slacking as a son and I know this I ain’t doing half of the s**t I’m supposed to”.

As well as music, Johnson has also featured in Shiro’s Story, a low-budget rap action drama set in Deptford, London, in which lots of UK grime artists have made their acting debuts. It has received millions of YouTube views for a three-part series about love, betrayal and gun violence.

Johnson was killed travelling as a passenger in a Toyota Prius that collided with a Vauxhall Combo van in the village of Betley, 150 miles northwest of London.

The drivers of both vehicles were seriously injured, and three other passengers in Johnson’s taxi also had injuries. His cousin Krept led the tributes online saying: “My life will never be the same again. I love you and will forever miss you. I can’t believe it. I am heartbroken.” Other tributes poured in, including from fellow rapper Lady Leshur who posted a self-tape freestyle and wrote of Johnson: “1 Of The Few Artists From The Younger Generation That I Respected & Rated That Didn’t Rap About Guns/Drugs & Had Positive Lyrics.” Brit Award winner Stormzy wrote on Instagram: “Everyone loves you look at what everyone has to say about your heart and character.”

Krept helped organise a memorial in Hyde Park on the afternoon of 10 February, inviting fans to join the family in remembering the talented grime star. Johnson’s mother made an emotional speech, saying: “I need you men to express yourselves, express your feelings. If it’s not to your mothers, to somebody, don’t hold it up, don’t keep pent up anger inside you, it’s not good … Tomorrow is not guaranteed to any of you. Don’t waste it being in anger.”

Johnson was due to perform at Wireless festival in London this summer. Wireless tweeted that it would keep his performance slot on the bill “as a time to reflect on the memory of Blaine”.

Blaine Cameron Johnson, “Cadet”, rapper, born 2 March 1990, died 9 February 2019