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Morgan Wallen‘s “I’m the Problem” tops Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart for a seventh consecutive week, leading the June 7-dated survey with 29.8 million audience impressions May 23-29, according to Luminate.
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The title track and third No. 1 from Wallen’s new album — which launched atop the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums (dated May 31) with 2025’s biggest week by equivalent album units (493,000 in the United States) — is the third of his 17 Country Airplay leaders to rule for seven weeks or more, following “You Proof” (10 weeks, 2022-23) and “Last Night” (eight weeks, 2023).
Wallen now claims the year’s longest No. 1 run on Country Airplay, surpassing the six-week command for Jelly Roll’s “Liar” in February-March. Wallen’s latest leader and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (seven weeks, August-September 2024) share the longest reigns since Nate Smith’s “World on Fire” dominated for 10 frames beginning in December 2023, tying “You Proof” as the longest-leading titles since the chart began in January 1990.
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Meanwhile, Wallen’s latest single being promoted to country radio, “Just in Case,” lifts 13-11 on Country Airplay (16.1 million, up 9%).
Smith’s Latest Top 10 ‘Break’-Through
Nate Smith’s “Fix What You Didn’t Break” rises two spots to No. 9 on Country Airplay (17.1 million, up 6%). Smith co-authored the song with Ashley Gorley, Taylor Phillips and Lindsay Rimes, the lattermost of whom also produced it. It’s from Smith’s album California Gold, which arrived at its No. 12 high on Top Country Albums last October.
Smith earns his fourth Country Airplay top 10. It follows “Bulletproof,” which hit No. 3 last August. The Paradise, Calif., native’s first of four entries, “Whiskey on You,” notched two weeks at No. 1 in February 2023, followed by “World on Fire.”
Oz-some Debut for ‘Laredo’
Lainey Wilson’s newest single, “Somewhere Over Laredo,” debuts on Country Airplay at No. 21 with 7.6 million impressions in its first week of release, aided by hourly spins on participating iHeartMedia stations upon its arrival May 23.
Notably, the song borrows from the melody of “Over the Rainbow,” which was written for the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. The credited writers of “Somewhere Over Laredo” are Andy Albert, Trannie Anderson and Dallas Wilson, with Harold Arlen and Edgar Yipsel Harburg – the co-authors of “Over the Rainbow” – also receiving credit.
Among other charted covers of the beloved ballad, Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’Ole’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” has topped Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart for 370 weeks, among an overall 802-week active run.
All charts dated June 7 will update Tuesday, June 3.
ICMP, the global music publishing organization representing 90% of the world’s commercially released music, has released its first-ever report on global music revenue, documenting the earnings of 16 of the top music markets.
In total, ICMP found that these select markets — United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Germany, Australia, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Canada, South Korea, the Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong and South Africa — were worth more than $11 billion alone. Because some markets have slightly different accounting periods, the revenue in the report stems from the markets’ last 12 months of completed financial data. Largely, that data is from 2023.
The report helps publishers and songwriters make sense of what trends are building in this sector of the music business and how music lovers across markets are consuming music differently.
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Overall, digital revenue makes up 47.1% of the $11 billion plus in total revenue earned by the 16 markets, while 20.2% of revenue came from synchronization (songs placed in films, TV shows, commercials and video games); 21.5% stemmed from non-digital performance (songs played in restaurants, stores and other public venues); 5.9% came from non-digital mechanicals (songs sold as digital downloads, CDs, vinyl records, cassettes and more); and 4.6% was described as “other.”
In total, 40.9% of overall global publishing revenue was collected directly by publishers, and 59.1% was collected by performing rights organizations (PROs) and other collective management organizations (CMOs), which act as middlemen between licensees and publishers.
Below is a breakdown of Billboard’s top takeaways from the report.
Digital Revenue Dominance Varies Widely Across Markets
Latin music lovers are some of the world’s biggest digital music consumers, according to the report. Mexico’s music publishing sector earns a whopping 70.5% of its revenue from digital sources like streaming services. This makes sense, considering the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reported in April that streaming equates to 98% of total revenue for Latin music in the U.S. on the master recording side.
When it comes to the three East Asian markets considered in ICMP’s report, their digital music consumption was strong but varied fairly significantly, proving music listeners in those markets are far from a monolith. Hong Kong’s revenue was 60% digital, whereas Japan came in at 49.7% digital and South Korea was 47.5% digital.
While Hong Kong is an outlier among East Asian countries, this does not mean that it correlated more closely with its former colonizer, the United Kingdom. In the U.K., digital represented just 41.5% of all publishing revenue.
In the European Union, digital consumption was generally much lower. Italy had just 20.3% of revenue come in from digital sources, while the number was 23.8% in France, 34.6% in the Netherlands, and 35% in Spain, which came in at the high end for the continent but was still relatively low, from a global perspective.
Synch Revenue Correlates to Strong Film/TV Markets
Given their robust film/TV businesses, it should come as no surprise that the U.S. and France had the strongest shares of synchronization in their total publishing revenue pie. The U.S. came in with 23.5% synchronization revenue and France had 18.6%.
Brazil (18.3%), Italy (17.9%), the U.K. (17.7%), Hong Kong (17.3%) and Australia (16.2%) also have strong revenues from synchronization uses. In general, countries that speak English, apart from South Africa, tended to report strong synch revenue shares, possibly due to the ubiquity of globally-distributed originally-English-language TV and film programming.
Countries like South Africa (9.7%), Mexico (9.5%), the Netherlands (9.2%) and Germany (8.8%) had much weaker synch markets, each owing just single-digit shares of their revenue in 2024 to synchs.
The Importance of CMOs Differs Across the World
For every country included in the report, more than half of their revenue was not directly sent to music publishers but through an intermediary CMO. Still, ICMP found that this percentage differed substantially from market to market.
Japan takes in the vast majority of its publishing revenue (84%) through intermediary CMOs — as do countries like South Korea (82.8%) and Brazil (77.2%).
The U.S. music publishers collect the most direct money of all the countries included in the report, with 40.9% going directly to publishers and the remaining 59.1% going through a CMO (like ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR or the MLC). This lower number passing through CMOs might account for CMO regulations unique to the U.S. market. For example, ASCAP and BMI, which collect U.S. performance monies, have not been allowed to collect royalties from movie theaters when songs are played publicly (the “cinema royalty”), even though most other countries do.
To read through the full report, visit ICMP’s website.
What does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez listen to when she’s fighting for change or passing legislation on Capitol Hill? A lot of Bad Bunny, as it turns out.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone published Friday (May 30), the politician opened up about policy, the Donald Trump administration and, of course, her favorite tunes. “I have had the Bad Bunny album on repeat,” she told the publication, referencing 2025’s four-week Billboard 200 chart-topper Debi Tirar Mas Fotos.
“As a Puerto Rican, the album is very cathartic, and it’s very political,” AOC continued. “It speaks to a lot of what’s happening to us and our people right now.”
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The New York native added that she loves how the rapper is “bringing salsa back.” “Rauw Alejandro is doing that, too,” she noted. “I’m a big salsa person. It’s such a nice outlet. I like it because the lyricism is so dramatic. Everyone’s breaking up, everyone’s got the love of their life. It’s so funny.”
AOC’s praise of the “Titi Me Pregunto” artist comes as he’s gearing up to tour the globe in support of his new album, traveling around Latin America, Asia, Australia and Europe. He’s also been breaking numerous sales records while he’s at it, from becoming the first Latin act to ever sell out a stadium concert in Australia to selling all-time high amounts of tickets in France, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Sweden for a Latin artist.
Other than his upcoming residency in Puerto Rico, however, Bunny is notably skipping the United States on his tour. When asked for her thoughts, Ocasio-Cortez told RS, “We just don’t have figures like that anymore.”
“I think about the Civil Rights Movement, and I think about people like Harry Belafonte and all of these artists who really did risk everything, risk their careers and their popularity in order to support and take part in people’s movements, and to use their art … it’s more rare now, or at least it feels that way,” she continued. “I wasn’t around then. The pressures of the industry are to be as broad as possible. When you have someone who does something gutsy like that, first of all, people come through for it, and it’s super compelling.”
To the representative’s point about Bunny being political, the three-time Grammy winner is also active in politics outside of his music. In the 2024 U.S. election, he supported Kamala Harris’ campaign for president, boosting her messaging about what was at stake for Puerto Rican voters.
Several other Latin stars — including Luis Fonsi, Marc Anthony and Ricky Martin — also expressed support for Harris, though others backed Trump. In September, AOC dissed Nicky Jam and Anuel AA for endorsing the twice-impeached POTUS during a congressional hearing.
“I suppose that puts you and Nicky Jam and Anuel in the same boat,” she told Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the far-right Center for Immigration Studies, after he claimed not to remember Trump saying he wanted to “sell” Puerto Rico.
No Na comes to L.A., and we’re taking you inside a day in the life of the newest Indonesian girl group. They show us their process of recording a song in the studio, how they cook, share the story of how they met and more!
Are you excited to hear more of No Na’s music? Let us know in the comments!
No Na:Hey, everyone for No Na, come spend 24 hours with us with Billboard. Let’s head into the 88 Studio. Let’s do it!
Lyndsey Havens:This group has worked together before, it seems?
Sean Miyashiro:Yes.
Lyndsey Havens:OK on all the music so far?
Sean Miyashiro:A lot of it, yeah, this is kind of like the consistent crew got it. I mean, everybody has made songs with the girls that are coming out, basically. They only have one song out.
Lyndsey Havens:Amazing.
No Na:Coming soon.
Sean Miyashiro:Hey, this is kind of fire, actually.
Lyndsey Havens:Do you usually wait to find a beat before you start writing? Or sometimes–
No Na:Yeah.
Lyndsey Havens:OK, cool. Feel the vibe, and then you see what fits that?
No Na:Yeah. Baila comes up with the best melodies.
Lyndsey Havens:That’s a good strength.
No Na:She makes the best lyrics.
Sean Miyashiro:Oh that’s so fire. The best. So the key is these, like lead bass lines that he does. He’s insane with this stuff. It kind of drives everything, right? It leads us. Should we start? Should we start coming up with the melodies. Let’s do it.
No Na:I like how we started this. What did you say? Got you in my glass? Got you in my hole? Got you in my what? Caught you in a lie. Caught you in a lie, love. Time to say goodbye.
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It’s official! Pride Month is (basically) here, folks! To celebrate the occassion, why not add some new music from you favorite queer artists to your summer playlists? Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ+ artists.
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From Miley Cyrus’ experimental new album to Girl in Red’s heartbreaking new single, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
Miley Cyrus, Something Beautiful
Miley Cyrus has been through it since becoming part of the public discourse in her Hannah Montana days. But instead of simply trying to move past the tribulations she’s faced, the singer is ready to make art all about it. Something Beautiful, Cyrus’ oscillating, fluid new visual album, sees the star embracing her own story — warts and all — through scintillating pop-rock (“Easy Lover”), disco (“Every Girl You’ve Ever Loved”) and dance (“Reborn”). The throughline, as it has been on each of her albums, is Cyrus’ unwavering commitment to telling a captivating story through her own artistic medium.
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Girl in Red, “Hemingway”
During her Doing It Again tour in 2024, Girl in Red was in a dark place. Now, on her latest single “Hemingway,” the singer-songwriter is ready to give fans a glimpse of what she was going through. Over an entrancing melody, Marie Ulven sings about her struggle with addiction and depression with shocking honesty, before giving voice to the people in her life that helped pull her out of it. “You better give up this act you don’t know how to play/ And come back down before it’s too late,” she sings on the tearful chorus, once again showing fans what a stunning songwriter she really is.
Wet Leg, “CPR”
Sometimes there’s just that one voice in your head telling you that what you’re doing is maybe not the best idea. On Wet Leg’s slinky new track “CPR,” they tune that voice out and dive in head first to a relationship. Sure, Rhian Teasdale might be wondering aloud “is this love or suicide” over a bone-shaking bassline, but she makes her choice clear within the first line of the bombastic, excellent chorus: “Put your mouth to mine and give me CPR.”
Royal & the Serpent, “Euphoria”
Most people associate the phrase “euphoria” with the rush of sudden joy and pleasure — but Royal & the Serpent wants to access more than just that. With her new track of the same name, Ryan Santiago aims to “feel it all,” and proves as much with the track’s wide-ranging production. From tender, synth-assisted lows to explosive, beat-heavy highs, “Euphoria” feels, aptly, like an emotional rollercoaster. And much like those rides, you’ll be lining up to go on it again as soon as it’s over.
Kate Nash, “GERM”
The terf “TERF” has an elegant simplicity to it — it describes what it means literally (“trans-exclusionary radical feminist”), while also sounding like the simple put-down it is. Kate Nash would like to tweak the phrase just a little bit, though. On “GERM,” her experimental, spoken-word protest track, Nash looks to all the TERFs celebrating a UK court’s recent decision excluding trans women from the definition of “woman” and gives them a new name — “girl exclusionary regressive misogynists.” No, they are “not radical” or “rad at all,” Nash argues. They’re GERMs, trying to infect our public discourse with transphobic vitriol.
King Isis, “LATELY”
With their latest alt-pop anthem, rising singer-songwriter King Isis has had enough of the same routines. “Lately” sees the Oakland artist leaning into her own malleability, favoring change over stability on this angsty new single. Throw in some grungy guitars, a killer vocal performance and some smartly written lyrics, and you’ve got an excellent new track courtesy of King Isis.
Betty Who, “Sweat”
With Pride Month basically here, there’s no better time to find some songs to get you dancing this June. Naturally, Betty Who is here to deliver the goods on “Sweat,” her synthy pop anthem that’s practically built for your forthcoming Pride Month festivities. The driving beat keeps the pressure up, as Who’s voice reaches a new stratosphere, commanding you to get to the nearest dancefloor ASAP.
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
Cardi B torched Offset after learning that her estranged husband filed for spousal support in their divorce proceedings. She hopped on X Spaces on Friday (May 30) and exploded on her ex for his spousal support request. The Grammy-winning rapper called Set a “f—-ing b—h” during her emotionally charged rant.
“Cus now I’ma crash out and I don’t give a f–k. You a b—h. N—a, you a f—ing b—h,” she began. Cardi B called out the reasoning behind Offset’s spousal support request, as he told The Breakfast Club it was over Cardi “asking for everything” and not letting him see their kids, which she denies.
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“You such a f–king p—y a– n—a,” she continued. “Word to my mother, I want you to die, but I want you to die f–king slow. When you die, I want you to die slow in the bed. And when you die, n—a, you gotta think of me.”
Cardi explained that she amended her divorce filing, asking for “no child support” because she “wants to be done with this marriage.”
“[Offset] is allowed to see my kids. He stood up my kids three times. He has seen Blossom only like five times,” she said of their four-month-old. “And I’ve been trying to save your face … Stop playing.”
She went on to claim that the last time Offset saw their kids was in March at his son Kody’s birthday. (He shares the 7-year-old with ex Oriel Jamie. Cardi detailed that the Migos rapper took issue with having to see their kids in a hotel room since she’s not allowing him to pull up to their New Jersey house.
Billboard has reached out to Offset’s reps for comment.
Earlier this month, Offset updated Cardi’s divorce petition in New Jersey’s Bergen County Superior Court with a request for an unspecified amount of alimony.
After more than six years of marriage, Cardi filed for divorce from Offset in August for a second time, seeking primary custody of their 6-year-old daughter Kulture, 3-year-old son Wave and baby girl Blossom. In February, Offset responded to the divorce, seeking joint custody of the children.
It appears Cardi B has moved on, as the “WAP” rapper was spotted courtside at a New York Knicks playoff game earlier in May with NFL star Stefon Diggs.
On Wednesday (May 28), President Donald Trump issued an order commuting the federal prison sentence of the former leader of the Gangster Disciples, Larry Hoover. The federal sentence of three life terms was given to Hoover for running the Gangster Disciples from his prison cell. However, Hoover remains in jail for state murder charges in Illinois. Advocates are calling on Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to give Hoover clemency.Hoover’s commutation was part of a group of 26 acts of clemency and pardons issued by Trump. That group includes rapper NBA Youngboy and reality television stars Todd and Julie Christley. It was announced by the White House’s “pardon czar”, Alice Marie Johnson.
In a separate interview with TMZ Hip Hop, she said that she hoped that Governor Pritzker would consider giving Hoover clemency. Ye, aka Kanye West, has also made pleas to Trump to release Hoover, bringing one of his lawyers to the White House during his first term in 2018, saying it was “very important for me to get Hoover out.”The 74-year-old is currently serving a 200-year sentence for his conviction for murdering rival William Young in 1973. In order for him to be freed, a petition has to be approved by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. Hoover was denied parole in 2022, after letters from Young’s family protested his release.
“I think there’s a mass pressure here for JB to show that he believes in redemption,” said community activist and Hoover friend Ja’mal Green. “If we’re going by what he claims he believes and the policies that he has signed on with his pen then Larry Hoover represents that. This is merely politics if JB Pritzker does not use a stroke of his pen.”“I understand folks on both sides some who quite frankly felt a lot of pain, but also those who can believe in the power of redemption,” said Illinois State Senator Willie Preston, representing the 16th District, to local NBC network News 5 Chicago.
According to a representative for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Hoover remains in custody at the United States Penitentiary Florence ADMAX in Florence, Colorado. There has been no word from Pritzker’s office that signals that they’re open to giving Hoover clemency.
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Photo: U.S. District Court Records
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For those eager to get their hands on an Xbox dedicated handheld device, you’ll have to wait a bit longer.
Xbox chief Phil Spencer hasn’t been tight-lipped about the long-rumored Xbox handheld, speaking about the device as far back as 2017 when he claimed that Microsoft had “roughly designed” one in the past, while bringing up the device in numerous discussions that hint at its continued development.
Windows Central then threw more fuel on the fire when it reported on Microsoft’s strategy, which will see the company not only team up with a third-party on an Xbox-branded portable PC codenamed “Kennan” but also continue to work on its device, launching alongside the successor to the Xbox Series X/S in 2027.
Now, the website reports that Microsoft has “sidelined” the device as part of a strategy shift.
Per Eurogamer:
Now, though, Windows Central claims Microsoft has had a bit of a strategic rethink, and development of its own handheld device has been “sidelined”. According to the publication’s source, the company has internally announced it’ll instead “prioritise its teams to improve Windows 11 gaming performance, specifically for devices like the ASUS partner device Project Kennan” (NB. the site originally reported this under the name “Keenan” back in March, but has since updated its original story). It doesn’t sound like Microsoft is completely abandoning its own handheld plans, however; Windows Central says the company “still has big ambitions and is investing heavily to deliver a native Xbox handheld”, but third-party devices and Windows 11 improvements will be where it focuses its resources for now.
Project Kenna Is Still Coming
Windows Central reports that Project Kennan is “essentially finished” in terms of hardware, with the software component receiving a “significantly boosted effort” from Microsoft’s Xbox and Windows teams to “improve the experience on the software side.”
The plan to launch the Xbox-branded ASUS device sometime “later this year” is still on the table.
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Now that all the major music companies have reported earnings for the quarter ended March 31, it’s a good time to reflect on the notable performances in the bunch. Most companies posted good results and showed that music is a reliable business during times of uncertainty, with nearly all trending in the right direction (though companies not mentioned here didn’t necessarily have something to crow about). But because companies naturally experience ebbs and flows — a slow new release schedule or heavy sales of low-margin vinyl records can wreak havoc on market perceptions — the results for any one quarter won’t tell the entire story.
Below, I run down a few notable and/or interesting highlights from the latest earnings releases. For a full recap of earnings reports, refer to Billboard’s 2025 Q1 earnings roundup, which provides quick summaries of music companies’ earnings reports issued from April 29 to May 28. Best top-line revenue growth: 22% by CTS Eventim
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German concert promoter and ticketing company CTS Eventim’s top-line revenue got a boost from its 2024 acquisitions of See Tickets and France Billet, as consolidated revenue jumped 22.0% to 499 million euros ($525 million). Growth of the existing business was “slightly higher” than a strong prior-year period, CFO Holger Hohrein said on the May 22 earnings call. Ticketing revenue improved 16.9% to 214 million euros, a record for the first quarter. Retail tickets sold improved 42.1% to 40.5 million. Live entertainment revenue increased 24% to 292 million euros ($316 million), also a first-quarter record. Best streaming growth, record label: 9.5% by Universal Music Group (UMG)
Subscriptions helped offset a lackluster 2.9% increase in other streaming revenue, including ad-supported streaming, resulting in overall streaming growth of 9.5%. UMG executives have told investors they can achieve long-term recorded music subscription growth of 8% to 10% through 2028. While the figure bounces from quarter to quarter — and has fallen well below the target range — UMG landed above the high end of the target by achieving recorded music subscription revenue growth of 11.5% in the first quarter. The subscription growth was “driven primarily by growth in the number of subscribers, and to a much lesser extent, helped by certain price increases,” COO Boyd Muir said during the April 29 earnings call. Best subscription growth, streaming platform: 16.6% by Tencent Music Entertainment (TME)
TME’s subscription growth dominated the quarter for two reasons. First, average revenue per user improved 7.5% to $1.57, in part from the popularity of the Super VIP tier that costs five times as much as a normal subscription. Second, the number of subscribers grew 8.3% to 122.9 million. With more people paying a higher monthly fee, subscription growth rose to 17%. The ripple effects could be seen elsewhere: gross profit margin rose to 44.1% from 40.9% in the year-ago period, and the percentage of paying subscribers versus all music users improved to 22.1% from 19.6% a year earlier. Most surprising new business segment: Tencent Music Entertainment’s physical music sales.
In the first quarter, TME had a 10-day “head-start presale” of the Teens in Times album Beyond Utopia. TME also sold physical albums for One Hundred Thousand Volts by Silence Wang. For the K-pop artist G-Dragon, TME conducted a presale of light sticks and other products and offered limited-edition merchandise to buyers of his digital albums. Most impactful executive quotes: Sphere Entertainment Co. Executive chairman/CEO James Dolan and Vivid Seats CEO Stan Chia
Two vastly different companies provided contrasting takes on the state of live music demand. Amidst reports of falling international tourism to the U.S., Sphere Entertainment Co. CEO James Dolan downplayed concerns about visits to Las Vegas and attendance at the Sphere venue. Even if tourism took a hit, Dolan explained that “demand exceeds capacity, so we have room to absorb any issues from that.”
On the other hand, Stan Chia, CEO of secondary tickets marketplace Vivid Seats, described a more challenging landscape. The quarter “fell short of our expectations,” he said during the May 6 earnings call. Chia blamed the shortfall on “robust competitive intensity” and “softening industry trends amidst consumer uncertainty.” What’s more, he added, “economic and political volatility has impacted consumer sentiment, and this uncertainty can also impact how and when artists and rights holders go to market.” A 14% decline in revenue, combined with Chia’s comments and the company’s suspension of full-year guidance, caused a 38% one-day decline in Vivid Seats’ share price.
Central Cee’s Can’t Rush Greatness World Tour consumed Terminal 5 in New York on Wednesday (May 28). I say “consumed” because to enter Terminal 5 on the following night was to enter into a world dominated by nothing less than rabid, unchecked Cench fandom. I admittedly got there late, and heard Central Cee walk out on stage to a clamor of drums and screams while I meandered through security. When the walls shook with the rapper’s arrival, a young girl screamed for her friend to “hurry the f—k up” through the line, as if they had anything to do with the pace of security.
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“If I miss GBP I’ll f—king kill you!” she exclaimed in all seriousness before ultimately bailing on her friend and barreling toward the stage.
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This esurient energy was everywhere from the moment I got inside. Sweaty young supporters hurled themselves into mosh pits while shoving their friends and bulldozing their way toward the stage . A few die-hards carried vinyls, signs and handfuls of pens in the hopes of catching Central Cee’s fleeting attention. The U.K. spitter briefly indulged one fan early on in his set, signing his cap after it was hurled at him on stage, but the moment was ruined when dozens of others soared through the sky immediately after.
What struck me most amidst the ongoing chaos was Central Cee’s steadiness. There were some colorful visuals, but otherwise, it was just him on stage, rapping through “Ten,” “St. Patricks,” “Top Freestyle” “Gata” and more with the precision of a vet, but with the stage presence of a newly minted underground self-starter.
He couldn’t possibly be unaware of how beloved he is. The whole front row hollered every single word to “Truth in the Lies,” and three teen boys standing in front of me nearly tumbled off the balcony when he performed “Sprinter.” During his performance of “Gen Z Luv,” he FaceTimed a young girl in the crowd (a gimmick he’s used many times on tour so far), but the girl in question confidently spit every syllable in the song so confidently it felt staged.
Even if it was partially staged, the commitment was commendable. No special guests arrived (Cench had brought out A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie the previous night at Brooklyn Paramount), there was no backup dancers or any other fluff to add spectacle. The only “surprise” was when Cench busted out his seminal “On the Radar” freestyle, which he didn’t even need to rap because his fans drowned out the bars themselves. Prior to that, he played a few moments from Ice Spice’s “Did It First,” which garnered a surprisingly muted response.
The energy admittedly dipped during slower moments. “Limitless” didn’t pop off the way it should have, and Cench sat down for a performance of 2023’s “Cold Shoulder” that only some truly faithful Day One’s knew the words to. Regardless, the love was there, and the supporters came roaring back to life for a few more hits, most notably “Band4Band,” which the three teen boys in front of me knew, videoing each other singing with their phones. The trio had been clamoring for Central Cee’s attention all night, screaming at him during every lull. As Cench wandered around the stage, rapping “Band4Band,” the U.K. rap star finally looked up and gave a wave, causing the kids to dap each other up and almost seize in excitement.
“That was legendary,” one of them said as everyone stumbled out the venue. It was just Central Cee being himself, and for the sold-out crowd at Terminal 5, that was more than enough to satiate them.