We’re over Hawk Tuah. Today’s edition of What’s Happening on TikTok is devoted to the Madeline Argy–Central Cee–Ice Spice drama. If any of those names sound familiar to you, I imagine you have some idea what I’m talking about. Did a British rapper cheat on his British influencer girlfriend with an American rapper? That’s the central question. If none of that sounds familiar, you can either stay for the ride (I promise it’s pretty good) or go read about politics or whatever. We’ll be plenty busy over here watching one woman’s TikTok videos and engaging in speculation from across the pond. Let’s go!
Who are Madeline Argy and Central Cee?
Argy, 24, is a British influencer with over 6 million followers on TikTok. She’s famous for her candid story-time videos, which she parlayed into becoming part of the Call Her Daddy universe with a podcast on Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network. She’s the protagonist of our story.
Central Cee, 26, is a British rapper. He’s very famous if you’re British, pretty famous if you listen to rap, and a total “Who?” if you’re an American with tastes that lean more toward the pop girlies. If anything, you might know him from his viral TikTok song, “Doja.” Does the line “How can I be homophobic? My bitch is gay” sound familiar? Argy is said bitch. She identified as a lesbian before dating Central Cee and now shies away from putting a label on her sexuality.
Argy and Central Cee have been on-again, off-again since 2022. They broke up in September 2023 but quietly got back together at some point this year. The couple was photographed together in Nigeria back in June, while Central Cee was shooting a music video, causing speculation that they were back together. Then, earlier this month, Central Cee and Ice Spice started spending a lot of time together. They went shopping together, they spent time at a hookah lounge — and, yes, they had a new song to promote, but people were quick to speculate about a romantic relationship.
Did Central Cee cheat on Argy?
Sure seems like it. Argy got on TikTok over the weekend and shared her side of the story in a series of TikTok videos that have accumulated over 160 million views. The way she tells it, the story starts a few months ago.
“Let me take you guys back a couple months. I’m laid up in bed and Pookie comes to me and he’s like, ‘I have a new song to show you.’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, serenade me!’ And then he plays me his verse,” Argy explained, “I’m like … not only did you just snitch on yourself that you’re cheating, but you just told me exactly how.”
In Central Cee’s collab with Ice Spice, “Did It First,” his verse is about how much he loves cheating. So are hers, actually. It’s a cheater’s anthem. “I’m selective with who I get with / Gyal on my phone tryna see who I slept with / She investigating, detective / Lucky for me, I deleted the message / All along, it was me and a bad bitch / But I told her it was me and my bredrin,” he raps on the song.
According to Argy, Central Cee told her that the verse was “just marketing.” Shortly after Argy heard the song for the first time, the influencer Leah Halton posted a video lip syncing to a Central Cee song in a car that looks like his. Argy explained that this was an intentional ploy from Central Cee to spark dating rumors, another marketing move.
Argy said that her team was dubious about her upcoming trip to Nigeria with the rapper, which made her realize that she had “entered this man’s marketing scheme.” From what I can tell, Argy is implying that Central Cee wanted to be seen with her so that cheating rumors would ramp up ahead of the release of “Did It First.”
In mid-June, Argy says she tried to break up with Central Cee. She says he asked if they could wait to have the conversation in July because he was busy with concerts. Apparently he called her on July 1, saying, “I need to see you tonight … because you need to remember that I’m a human being when you see what you’re gonna see tomorrow.” The next day, Argy saw the photos of him and Ice Spice shopping together.
“Imagine you break up with your boyfriend one night, and the next day he’s posted up with Ice Spice,” Argy said. “I didn’t even actually get to break up with him, and he’s already with the next girl!”
Has Central Cee said anything about this?
No. I doubt he ever will, to be honest. He’s getting eaten up in his comment section on Instagram right now. “Nah, Madeline is that girl … it’s your loss,” one person wrote. “Immagine fumbling Madeline for a mid song💀,” said another. I was unaware that Argy had stans like this, but apparently she does!
Is all of this just a really clever marketing scheme?
According to Argy, yes, but she isn’t in on it. In her latest TikTok, she wrote, “airing out my dirty laundry bc I got publicly humiliated and I still can’t beat the PR allegation” over a clip of her flailing in bed. While I don’t think it’s the case, it would’ve been kind of genius to pay her a lot of money to promote the song this way. Who knows how many of the “Did It First” streams are from people just like me: Millennial–Gen Z cusps trying to figure out what the heck is going on.