He’s gone from dealing drugs to having No 1 hits and vying with Harry Styles for Brit awards. As he gears up for his first US gig in New York, he explains his conflicted morality – and £3m house
A writhing mass of arms and torsos, armed with cameraphones and the occasional vape, surge towards Central Cee as he takes on one of American hip-hop’s rites of passage: a show in New York City’s Irving Plaza. The London rapper’s first two mixtapes – Wild West, from 2021, and 23, from 2022 – debuted at No 2 and No 1 in the UK, and he was nominated for British artist of the year at this year’s Brits alongside Harry Styles and Stormzy. Cee specialises in expressive streams of consciousness that contain a matrix of paradoxes – romantic and realist, hard and unguarded, nostalgic and present – and, crucially, he’s boyband-pretty. But while he has been a UK sensation for some time, this is his first concert in the US.
Help is on hand from the biggest rapper in the world, Drake, who sent his own tour technician to make sure Cee has a smooth stint on the road. “Drake said: ‘Take care of him,’” the roadie says before the show, acknowledging the difficulties Cee faces. “In America, getting into UK hip-hop is tough, unless you’re really into it.” But the 24-year-old has made short work of any obstacles thus far; Cee refers to his music as “ignorantly conscious”, and that clashing dichotomy is what has made it so infectious.