Who is Kai Cenat? For those uninformed people who aren’t tapped into his movement, Kai is one of the most popular streaming personalities in the world. The 22-year-old New York City native, who now lives in Atlanta, has caught viral fame for many reasons over the last year. While he may not be a rapper, hip-hop has certainly embraced him.
Why Is Kai Cenat Popular?
Kai has built a loyal following from streaming his daily activities on the Twitch platform, where he’s been active since 2021. He has over 9.5 million followers on his channel. In 2023, he became the most-subscribed Twitch streamer of all time, and also won Streamer of the Year at the Streamy Awards. Why are people so invested in Kai Cenat’s life on stream? He’s a funny guy. Plus, he interacts with his “chat,” the people tuned into his stream.
His streams include listening to new music and giving his unfiltered opinion—Metro Boomin and Future’s We Don’t Trust You album among them—creating hilarious moments with rappers—like the time Blueface and Chrisean Rock‘s visit went viral—and unboxing gifts fans send him. He also has a dedicated YouTube channel with nearly 7 million subscribers. On the channel, he shares many of these moments, world travels and eye-popping activities like hiring a professional cuddler and having a sleepover with 30 women. People have also tuned in just to watch him sleep.
Last year, Kai revealed he had 81,000 subscribers on Twitch paying $5 a month. While he doesn’t like to talk about the money he makes, the streamer did share that it’s typically a 50/50 split for creators on the platform. His subscribers have likely increased by now, but some quick math based on those 2023 numbers comes to $405,000. With more popularity than ever, he’s clearly making bank.
Read More: Twitch Streamer Kai Cenat’s Reaction to Lil Baby’s Verse on Trippie Redd’s New Song ‘Fully Loaded’ Goes Viral
Rappers Love Kai Cenat
One of Kai Cenat’s earliest viral moments when it comes to hip-hop was a result of Blueface and Chrisean Rock’s livestream. In 2022, the former couple caused madness in an unforgettable live experience. Chrisean threw Kai’s friend into a couch, tossed a chair into a wall and ate pizza obnoxiously loud without closing her mouth as she chewed, which caused a hilarious reaction from Kai.
Ice Spice, Offset, 21 Savage and Nicki Minaj, among others, have also joined Kai Cenat’s livestreams. Rappers tend to make visits to Kai as part of their album rollouts these days.
However, one rapper who isn’t too fond of Kai, at least for now, is Kanye West. In March of 2024, Kai did a livestream trying on a pair of Yeezy sweatpants that clearly did not fit him. Ye caught wind of the moment and hit Kai on Instagram with a surprising message.
“Don’t make no jokes about my clothes…When you ain’t saying nothing about what Adidas is doing…When Vultures song came out you ain’t play my verse…You controlled. Don’t play with me,” Ye wrote.
Read More: GloRilla and Kai Cenat Have a Funny Beef Over a Song and Getting Blocked on Instagram
Kai Cenat’s Controversies
While Kai has plenty of positive and funny moments linked to his name, he also has a few controversial incidents. In 2023, he caused a riot in his hometown when he announced to his followers that he would do a Playstation 5 giveaway. The incident resulted in thousands of young men and women showing up to Union Square in New York City. Offset, NLE Choppa and DDG showed support for Kai despite the chaos he caused. Kai was charged with inciting a riot.
Kai also faced backlash last year for creating a mock prison system, in which rappers like NLE Choppa and Chrisean took part as fake prisoners. The experience was livestreamed for seven days.
All the talk across social media only increased the charismatic streamer’s popularity.
Check out Kai Cenat’s memorable conversations with rappers below.
