EsDeeKid: Rebel

"His knees guide the steering wheel as he speeds down the highway with the sun in absentia. The windows are down; it takes four gongs of the nearby church bell to remind him that daylight breaks soon. "Prague," a standout from Rebel, paints this portrait in broad strokes. Anecdotes like this are the closest we get to insight on EsDee's character: a daredevil incarnate, headstrong and unconcerned with dressing up his vices in euphemism."

"this is not Timmy Chalamet doing a bit. Rebel is a 21-minute knucklehead's account of streetlit debauchery: stomach-turning double cups, overstuffed Backwoods, empty pill bottles. EsDeeKid conceals his identity with black balaclavas (hence the conspiracies), but the way he slathers bass-thumping numbers with his Merseyside snarl is enough of an introduction. In his own words, he's a "fuckin' ticking time bomb," a "bastard" in the fatherless sense, but reading these quotes on a web browser won't do them any justice."

EsDeeKid is a Liverpool-born rapper who conceals his identity behind black balaclavas and has become a sudden mainstream sensation. Rebel, his debut full-length, runs 21 minutes and centers on streetlit debauchery—double cups, overstuffed Backwoods and empty pill bottles. "Prague" portrays a hazel-eyed Brit pouring liquor with coke on his nostril and speeding through night, evoking a headstrong, daredevil character. Tabloids and prestige outlets have run wild headlines and identity conspiracies, including comparisons to Timothée Chalamet. EsDeeKid calls himself a "fuckin' ticking time bomb" and a "bastard" in the fatherless sense; his Merseyside snarl and bass-thumping production define his confrontational aesthetic.

Read at Pitchfork