Photo credit: Mixtape Madness / CC by 3.0
British rapper Central Cee has signed to Columbia Records as part of a joint venture with Sony Music UK.
Central Cee is performing at the upcoming Glastonbury Festival, the country’s largest live music festival. The deal was reportedly led by Columbia executive vice president Bu Thiam and Central Cee manager Bello. The terms of the deal have not been publicly announced, but the joint venture nature suggests that Cench will retain ownership of its recordings.
The rapper has around 25 million monthly listeners on Spotify and his collaboration ‘Sprinter’ with Dave has topped the UK Singles Chart for the third straight week. The duo racked up over nine million streams in a single week, beating J Hus and Drake’s “Who Told You” and Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding’s “Miracle.” He’s also the first British rapper to hit 1 billion streams on Spotify in just one year.
XXL revealed his freshman class of 2023, in which Central Cee was a “central” figure. A look at the list of 12 rappers this year includes Finesse2tymes, Lola Brooke, Rob49, Fridayy, GloRilla, 2Rare, Sleazy World Go, Central Cee, Real Boston Richey, Luh Tyler, TiaCorine, DC The Don, Pi’erre Bourne (producer ). ).
The Cench was born Oakley Neil Caesar-Su and is only 25 years old. He released his first tracks in 2014 and released several EPs and singles over the next few years. His first fill mixtape was released in 2021 and was titled Wild West, which quickly earned him the title of best-selling British debut project that year.
His 2022 single “Doja” has racked up more than 450 million streams on Spotify. He also received three Brit Award nominations, including Best New Artist, Best Song and Best British Hip-Hop, Rap, Grime Act. Last fall he embarked on his first headlining tour of North America, followed shortly thereafter by a portrait of him New Yorker.