Highly touted British rapper Central Cee has signed a joint venture agreement with Columbia Records in partnership with Sony Music U.K., Variety has confirmed.
Known to fans as “Cench,” the rapper became the first-ever British male rapper to be included in XXL magazine’s influential annual “Freshman Class” list, which was unveiled on Wednesday. Central Cee will also perform at this week’s 2023 Glastonbury festival, the largest festival in the U.K.
The deal was led by Columbia executive vice president Bu Thiam with Central Cee’s manager, Bello. The fiercely independent rapper was the object of a heated bidding war in recent weeks; while terms of the Columbia deal were not announced, the joint venture suggests that he is likely to retain ownership of his recordings, as he has to date.
While British rappers have generally struggled for mainstream recognition in the U.S., largely due to differences in accents and slang, with his powerful flow and rugged good looks, Central Cee is touted by many as possibly the first.
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With at 25M+ monthly listeners on Spotify, his most recent collaboration “Sprinter” with artist Dave remains at No. 1 on the U.K. singles charts for a third consecutive week, holding the biggest opening in 2023 and the biggest-ever week for a rap single. Central Cee is also the first British Rapper to achieve 1 billion streams on Spotify in a single year. He was even the subject of a New Yorker profile earlier this year.
The West London rapper has long been an established artist in the U.K., and the XXL honor is likely to elevate his profile even more. Born Oakley Neil Caesar-Su, Cee, now 25, released his first tracks in 2014 and followed with a long series of EPs and singles over the following years. He released his first full mixtape, “Wild West,” in 2021, which was the top-selling British debut project of the year. His 2022 single “Doja” has racked up more than 450 million streams on Spotify alone and debuted at No. 2 on the official U.K. charts, while his “23” mixtape debuted at No. 1 on the country’s albums chart.
He also received three Brit Award nominations — for Best New Artist, Best Song and Best British Hip Hop, Rap, Grime act — and undertook his first headlining North American tour last fall.
