Buffalo Music: Two-part release goes back to the start for Green

By Benjamin Joe
(Image above: Cee Gee at Shoshone Park. Photo by Benjamin Joe)

He hasn’t been untouched by tragedy. He’s overcome challenges that many would have given up on. But where he’s gotten the strength to continue, and how he’s become the person he has today, is simple: his diligence to his craft. Just the basic ability and desire to make records, better records, every day.

Because of how long and hard he’s worked, Cee Gee has developed a long view of his career and sees how each stage in his life all leading to the present. When speaking of his newest album, the fifth, “REWIND, PRESS PLAY, FAST FORWARD SIDE A” released in 2025, he starts at the beginning. His first beat, made now 17 years ago.

“2009 was the year,” he said. “I was out of town in Virginia because I have family over there. I got a cousin who was already established in the music scene at the time. He had a studio set up in his parent’s house and I went down there and I made my first visit.

“He showed me how to get a sample and use that to make a beat. And the rest is history.”

By 2014 Cee Gee — who shares the name of Columbus Green with his late uncle, who performed with Rick James and many others — started going to shows and developing his sound outside the vacuum, making waves in his eco-system and meeting a lot of people in Buffalo, including Conway, Benny the Butcher, and, of course, Westside Gunn.

Cee Gee.

At that time, everyone was just coming up: rappers, MCs, artists and producers like Cee Gee. Venues were ample. Broadway Joe’s, the Waiting Room, Central Park Bar & Grill and more. He shared a little bit about his collaboration with Westside Gunn, but didn’t seem to want to brag. Still, it was those years that laid the foundation that brought him to today.

But what about his timeline? Five years later, in 2019, Westside Gunn had Cee Gee to thank for the production of his song, “Broadway Joe’s.” True to humble form, Cee Gee also emphasized the last five-year accomplishment. He finally got his GED in 2024, graduating as he worked on “REWIND, PRESS PLAY, FAST FORWARD.”

SIDE A is a beat-after-beat amazing record. There isn’t a lot of time to come down to skip a track, and none of them worth making an effort to do so. We’re talking production on a level of greatness, which is probably due to the tenacity he approaches each day. At least 10 to 20 beats created daily, he said.

The first track Cee Gee wanted to talk about on SIDE A was “BUFFALO KID’S SYMPHONY,” the first one he made for the project, which was originally titled “Green-stolgia.”

However, after going through the album, he decided to place it third in the order of songs, saying he likes to lead with the strongest. It features Brother Tom Sos, GoToMar$, PrettyBulli, Supa Kaliente and Genecist.

A true hip-hop anthem, it starts off strong with Brother Tom Sos, now on Griselda, according to Cee Gee, spitting bar after bar as the beat keeps going. It’s a track worth listening to more than once.

CeeGee also talked about the differences the album has from his previous efforts.

“I got more females than my previous projects. I got Pretty Bulli, Black Silq, Kelzkilher, Sauce the Artist and loweKEY. I’ve got five female artists on this project, more than my previous projects where I was at two or three females,” he said, explaining that his collaboration with Westside Gunn had brought more attention from quizzical female music fans.

Cee Gee.

“I want women to be more into my stuff. … that was my purpose to go R&B. … I needed to have something they can listen to during the day,” he siad.

But the story is not over. With so many songs and beats in the mix, Cee Gee found he had a whole double album on his hands with the second half being released a year after the first.

“REWIND, PRESS PLAY, FAST FORWARD SIDE-B” drops today.