Ron Perry's Columbia has prevailed in a competitive signing contest for U.K. rapper Central Cee. The deal is a JV partnership with Sony Music U.K. The buzzing, Bello-managed artist was pursued by multiple U.S. majors.
Cee enjoys 25m+ monthly listeners on Spotify, with one song at 450m+ streams and three others over 250m. He's the first British rapper to earn 1b streams on the Spot in a single year. Cee's collab "Sprinter" with fellow Brit star Dave has spent three straight weeks at #1 on the U.K. singles chart and is Top 10 on Spotify's global chart as of this writing.
Columbia EVP Bu Thiam is getting the collar for leading the signing on the label side; attorneys David Byrnes and David Lande of Ziffren Brittenham ran point.
Central Cee will perform at Glastonbury this year.
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