DRILL BITS

Central Cee brings Americans on a tour of British hip-hop.

- CARRIE BATTAN

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. Cench once rapped that he's "not performin' if I can't come with all of the guys," but in a gesture of confidence he began the show alone, backed only by an impassioned d.j., who queued up tracks behind his laptop, shouting lyrics into a microphone at key moments. This tactic, usually deployed to drum up excitement, was, by and large, unnecessary; the audience had come prepared to sing along to every word. "How many of you lot I have ever been to London before?" Cench asked the crowd, eliciting a wave of screams. "I'm all the way in New York," he said, and added, “I hope I can paint a picture for you to understand where I come from."

Onstage, Cench wore an oversized chain and a classic Yankees cap. The latter might have simply been a topical accessory, but it also brought to mind the shared DNA of contemporary New York rap and Cench's music. In the past three years, Cench has become one of the most prominent ambassadors of the U.K.'s thriving drill scene. Drill, originally inspired by a brutalist wave of hip-hop from Chicago, has become a dominant strain of British rap in the past decade. The signature drill sound-characterized by cold, off-kilter 808s and swaggering gruffness was eventually exported back to the States by way of Brooklyn rappers. Their sound has, in recent years, crept into the mainstream, adding a truly international chapter to the history of street rap. Across the pond, Cench is a home-town hero, but to a New York crowd he offered an intoxicating mix of the exotic and the familiar.