The influence of U.K. drill has spread widely, but few British rappers have broken out in the United States. Cench is one of the rare exceptions.
One Thursday evening last month, the rapper Central Cee performed in New York City for the first time in his young and rapidly ascendant career. Central Cee—or Cench, as his fans affectionately call him—is British, and a Manhattan stage can sometimes feel like a proving ground for a newcomer. Instead, thanks to the familiarizing power of the Internet, the frenzied, sold-out show, which was at Irving Plaza, felt like a homecoming.
As his music has travelled farther from home, Cench has often acted as a game tour guide to anyone new to the universe of British rap. Last fall, he visited an American hip-hop institution, the Los Angeles radio station Power 106 FM. He was there for an appearance on a show hosted by L.A. Leakers, who are best known for a series of beloved YouTube videos in which guests freestyle. Freestyling is not exactly au courant among young American rappers, but it has been crucial to Cench’s success.
Reared in West London, a hotbed of rap talent and gang warfare, Cench was exposed to a variety of local influences. The mixtape “17,” one of his early releases to streaming platforms, from 2017, was more like R. & B. than like rap, and it sounds as if it drew heavily from the Caribbean influences that surrounded him. He often filtered his vocals through Auto-Tune. This was a move he later scorned, as he developed a more unforgiving street-rap style.
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