EsDeeKid Brought the Heat to a Freezing Bowery and Bushwick

These are balkanized times in music and culture. More than ever, what is a big event for one person might be completely lost on another. But if you move in a certain segment of underground hip-hop, or if you follow new music closely at all, the frenzied atmosphere at the Bowery Ballroom (Friday) and Brooklyn’s Elsewhere (Saturday) made complete sense. Riding in on a wave of mystery, gritty mythology, virality, celebrity-adjacency and recent beefs, the timing of the Rebel Tour felt perfect. In a still young 2026, this was a moment, and the bouncing and brooding Scouser had New Yorkers enthralled. It was no mean feat getting into the shows. Not only had they sold out in the blink of an eye back in November, but by the end of the year resale prices were an eye-watering $600 and rising.

While they had dropped to half that as the dates approached, EsDeeKid was one of the hottest and hardest tickets in recent New York memory, reflecting a truly torrid come-up.

“No sheistys, no hoods!” security yelled to the mostly teens and early 20-somethings filing into the venue from the cold of Delancey Street: a funny request, considering the artist about to take the stage is synonymous with sheistys (balaclavas) and hoods. You could, however, drop $25 to $80 on merch commemorating the moment, and plenty lined up to do just that. Just after 9pm, the hook of Rae Sremmurd’s classic “Black Beatles,” which EsDeeKid famously covered early on, announced the arrival of the Scouser. He bounded on stage looking more demonic than his usual affect – the signature balaclava replaced by a demonic skull mask with hanging chains, reportedly an exclusive design by Anthony Riddle. The moody smash “Phantom” and rager “Rottweiler” kicked off the night, as the crowd erupted into a sea of bouncing bodies and phones and prompted a passing thought about just how stable the old Bowery Ballroom’s floor really is.

The Kid was a dynamo of punk energy, smartly, for a debut tour, front-loading the hits: “Phantom,” “Century” and “4 Raws” in rapid succession, followed by a first: the debut of new song “Omens,” released only a day earlier. Jagged black and white imagery – eyes, cassette tapes – flickered on the screen throughout, periodic plumes of white smoke erupted, and because the mysterious one was backlit throughout, attendees rarely got a truly clear look at him. When he did speak, it was in a voice that sounded excited and grateful, nothing like the menacing mug he was sporting.

Halfway through, he ceded the stage to his tour mate and frequent collaborator Rico Ace for two songs (presumably allowing EDK a brief break from that mask) then rejoined him for their 2024 collab “Bally” which, followed by favorites “Cali Man” and “LV Sandals” – exactly a year to the day after the latter, breakout song’s release, In less than an hour, after reprises of “Century” and “Phantom” he was out. It was a blast, and left ‘em wanting more, a good thing.

The 500+ capacity Bowery honestly amounted to an underplay – he’d have sold out three nights there. It’s hard to imagine an artist still considered “emerging” putting up EsDeeKid’s numbers: Spotify monthlies that exploded more than 20 fold from June to January, crossing 20 million last month; YouTube views up 7400% in the same time; three singles, months after release, are still in the U.K. Top 40 and all over national pop station Radio 1; his debut LP Rebel made it to number 8 there, and EsDee is nominated for Best Breakout Artist at the upcoming BRIT Awards. Stateside he may be playing catch-up, but only just. Rebel made it as high as number 23, single “4 Raws” – buoyed by a remix featuring a certain Hollywood A-lister (more on that in a sec) – peaked at 28 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and topped the Emerging Artists chart in January. And reportedly in late 2025 the artist, who 18 months earlier was hardly known outside of U.K. hip-hop heads, had signed a 30-million-dollar deal with Capitol Records.

On the brand-new “Omens,” EsDee pillages his way through boasts – “I’m lapping these man, I do mileage/ I’m taking it all, I’m a pirate” – and he’s not lying. This time last year, we were talking about fakemink as the hottest new name in British rap. Not only has EsDee lapped his friend and erstwhile collaborator, as well as the top names in U.S. rage rap, dude is now closing in on levels enjoyed by U.K. heavy hitters Central Cee and Dave. Even Yeat, who was last year a vocal co-signer of EsDee, didn’t have these numbers during his 2021 blow-up. The meteoric trajectory of a kid from the council houses – “I’m a scumbag, raised in Liverpool slums” EsDee says in “4 Raws” – has upended conventional wisdom about how U.K. rap connects globally.

Some may tell you it’s “all about the music,” which is legitimately compelling: a dirtbag mélange of jerk and cloud, chock full of tales of a hardscrabble come up, flex after flex about jewels and racks and drugs, self-glazing (“I’m young, lit and I’m handsome” in “Phantom”) and just enough menace, all in that heavy Scouse accent. It’s polarizing to some, irresistible to many, but it would be naive to suggest his explosion has only been about the tunes. Attention is the coin of the cultural realm, and EsDee’s come up has been a PR master class in sustaining gaze and engagement. They have played the masked mystery man thing to the hilt.

EsDee is not the first to conceal his face and identity. From The Residents to MF Doom, deadmau5, Marshmello, Ghost and Orville Peck – and more recently, in the American underground, $NOT and Yeat – music’s seen plenty of masked faces. But no one has leveraged that more successfully in such a short span of time. There’s also a history of U.K. street rappers masking up for very practical (aka legal, wanted) reasons, and in “Century” EsDee suggests he too has to “lie low.” But does he? Lying low doesn’t generally involve international travel, so chances are his face covering is theatre. But it’s performance art that’s worked like a charm.

With still no publicly verified name or background, rumors abound. Is he, in fact, the rapper that previously released, with an American accent, under the name DualSpines? Or was that his… brother? EsDee’s deliberate opacity invites fans to fill in their own theories – none more outlandish than the notion floated in November that he was Timothée Chalamet, based on little more than that the eyes looked alike. Absurd as it seemed, it was a fun and sticky thing that Team EDK rode for six weeks before the Oscar nominated “Timmy Tim” jumped on a remix of “4Raws,” with a verse name-checking Marty Supreme, and adding that his dick is “young and restless.”

Their internet-breaking joint appearance in a December video for the track seemed to put the idea they were one in the same to rest.

At the top of 2026 came more drama, as an unauthorized Chainsmokers remix of an EsDeeKid song appeared online and was “nuked” by the rapper, who posted, “wow please. don’t remix my sh– and think it’s cool to post to all DSPs.” And what is a rap come-up without some opps? Ten days ago, one surfaced. Another Liverpool rapper, Mazza L20, known in the U.K. for blowing up while he was incarcerated on a gun conviction, had a bone to pick. He briefly posted a track, “Scouse Kid,” which he claimed was a collaboration with EsDee, until, he said, EsDee’s team promptly had it taken down over a copyright claim and shadow banned it. Mazza took to video to call EDK a “sell out,” and shared what he claimed were pictures of the young rapper, unmasked, adding that he might divulge his legal name. There’s been no reply on any of the Mazza “beef” from EsDeeKid, but the conspiracy-minded have suggested that the timing of it – right at the start of EsDee’s North American tour – was convenient, and questioned whether this too was an ingenious PR stunt.

Would EsDeeKid have the buzz he has if he was unmasked? Who knows, but it’s beside the point, because the music holds up. It’s remarkable that they have managed to keep it going this long, in a world with cameras in every hand and plenty of “fans” likely eager to grab at that bally and get a snap of the face. He’s approaching the point where anonymity becomes an unsustainable logistics problem. With two L.A. shows this week, it could happen any day – my money is on Thursday at the Echoplex.

Overnight, the weather in Brooklyn went from freezing to Arctic. On Saturday, as temps hovered around 10 degrees Fahrenheit, the line to get inside an icy Bushwick’s Elsewhere waited in brutal conditions. When I arrived, it already stretched around the block, some fans shivering, huddling or sidling up to a halal truck for momentary warmth, calling for the doors to open early. “Yo, I’m gonna die of cold just for EsDeeKid,” said one youth from Massachusetts, underdressed in only a hoodie. My wait was a half hour, which gave me enough time to confirm with AI that 30 minutes is about how long it takes for frostbite to set in.

Maybe because of the frigid wait, once inside, the Elsewhere show went off with even more energy than the night before. The pit was bigger and more sustained, the crowd more unhinged and adventurous in its looks – more colored hair, more EsDee-imitative, including sheistys (allowed, apparently, in Brooklyn.) The rapper himself emerged in another dramatic fit: ditching the big mask from the night before, EsDee was back to the bally, along with a large, grey, weathered overcoat with a single pauldron of silver feather plates cascading down one shoulder. It gave mid-20th-century-working-class-Birdman, an avenging hawk, perhaps, for those stuck in dead-end situations from which EsDee has seemingly transcended. The biggest songs came and bedlam ensued under the disco balls. Everyone seemed to have the new “Omens” lyrics down pat, while the biggest EsDee anthem, “Phantom,” got three go-rounds.

“I fooking love New York!” were the Scouser’s parting words. And two nights of adulation offered ample proof that New York loves him back.

EsDeeKid’s Rebel Tour plays Los Angeles this week, before moving on to Australia