Central Cee has exported UK rap like no one else before, by sculpting UK drill for TikTok with fast-paced, bite-sized packaging that often remixes a recognisable hit, all sealed with his steely demeanour. An influential fashion figure and Gen Z icon, his success is global and previously inconceivable. His 2023 hit Sprinter with Dave sat in pole position in the charts for 10 consecutive weeks. The crowd at Co-Op Live arena reflects his youth appeal all the way down to primary-schoolers. But while the squealing girls and balaclava-wearing boys have their fun, sometimes it feels as though the rapper is too reticent to join in.
Arenas aren’t suited to reserved characters, but Cench, as his fans call him, is smart enough to match the Co-Op’s scale. He stands in front of a multitiered structure that, using screens, becomes an open dollhouse that tells the story of his come-up through the key places in his life, from his family home to his new pad. Unwinding into tracks from his initial mixtapes, his barbed flow rolls like a series of verbal jabs: “Your dad left home from young / And you ain’t done shit for your mum, ah man,” he berates on his breakout 2021 single Day in the Life.
