A homecoming present in Alexandra Palace’s nice corridor arrives as a cap on a unprecedented couple of years for west London rapper Central Cee. Driving UK drill’s foray into the echelons of pop, he’s staked a stable declare as the primary genuinely international UK rap star of his era. He has the chart placements (seven Prime 20 hits) and the streaming stats (20 million listeners a month on Spotify), however does he have {the catalogue} and the charisma wanted to hold a room like Ally Pally? On this chilly November night time, the fruity tang of Elf Bar vapes – a telltale signal of a younger viewers – mingles with the anticipation within the air.
His charisma is plain: he barely has to breathe to boost rapturous squeals from the group. However the catalogue? “I want I had extra hits,” he says, in a second of candour in direction of the present’s shut. “I’ve not been within the sport lengthy.” Therefore, he explains, the title of his tour, Nonetheless Loading, which ends tonight after stops in Europe, North America and Australia.
It’s a present of raucous peaks and placid lulls. The curse of getting a viral mega-hit – as Central Cee does with the Insta-quotable Doja – is that you simply’ll inevitably have a big contingent standing by the hour, ready for that single 90-second dopamine rush when the one they know comes on. “Simply fucking play Doja,” one well-watered punter shouts, apparently solely half-joking, halfway by the set. However Central Cee navigates these ups and downs nicely, sustaining a cultured efficiency all through, his hand regular on the gearstick.
For probably the most half, he rips by songs at a clip – a lot of his best-known tracks barely graze three minutes – stirring a sea of Snapchat streamers: rowdy hit 6 for six will get stopped midway by to permit stewards to rescue fallen moshers and provides the group a breather; his skippy PinkPantheress collab, Obsessed With You, units off a wave of two-stepping and adolescent coos. A drone whizzes over the group, filming clips that will probably be beamed again to them in a while TikTok.
He conjures a little bit of theatre for 23 album observe Lil Bro, bringing his youthful brother – a rapper himself – on stage for the observe’s heartfelt back-and-forth concerning the pitfalls of highway life. As the 2 shut out the room for a number of moments to commerce strains, an depth descends that may in any other case have dissipated into the group. It’s a glimpse of the place Central Cee’s sense of stagecraft is heading.
Provided that his best songs are beefed up with natural instrumentation on document – trumpets on Loading, picked guitar on Day within the Life – it’s a disgrace to not see somewhat extra bold staging tonight. Merely rapping these songs over a backing observe lacks the dynamics wanted to fill a room of this measurement. Dwarfed below an ever-changing visible array on the large screens, the slight rapper (and his DJ, propped on a flimsy desk) can look a bit misplaced at instances.
When the viewers serenades him with the refrain of Dedication Points, or performs karaoke for Abroad, the aloof persona melts away, changed by a pearly grin stretching beneath his cheekbones. There’s a glint of pending superstardom in that smile, if he can simply let it out.
