Is the EsDeeKid thing already over? I hope it's not. If it was, it was fun while it lasted. Last year, the masked Liverpool rapper EsDeeKid emerged out of the UK underground with a hard, energetic style. He rapped in incredibly short bursts over blown-out, psychedelic lo-fi beats, and he leaned hard into his accent. He rhymed "sell a show in Liverpool, I'm Paul McCartney" with "she tell me to choke her like the Great Khali." There was a meme about how maybe Timothée Chalamet was really EsDeeKid's secret identity, which led to the real Chalamet jumping on a remix to EsDeeKid's "4 Raws" — a fun publicity stunt, even if I never need to hear Chalamet rap again. Maybe that was the beginning of the end.
Earlier this month, EsDeeKid dropped the pretty fun single "Omens" and played his first North American shows. His LA gig included a surprise appearance from Yeat, the young California rage-rap king who also likes to wear a mask. Those two guys' respective styles are pretty different, but they're both insurgent rappers with lots of energy who don't sound like everyone else. Except when they make music together, maybe they really do sound like everyone else.
Today, Yeat and EsDeeKid released the new collab "Made It On Our Own," and holy shit is it boring. Together, these guys are just making generic inspirational trap, and EsDeeKid does not sound good when he doesn't sound like he's rapping by candlelight in a leaky, unfinished basement. It's depressing.
The two of them shot the song's video with Director X at the Embassy, Drake's Toronto mansion. In the beginning, we see the two of them watching Drake's "Toosie Slide" video, as if to say that's what they used to do and now they're making their own "Toosie Slide," which is frankly just not a very good goal. Drake isn't in the clip, but the whole thing is set up as a teaser for the next Drake comeback attempt anyway. Drake should at least have to appear on the song if he wants to keep dragging younger rappers down to his level. See it for yourself below.
This is apparently the lead single from an upcoming Yeat album called ADL (A Dangerous Lyfe), so maybe it won't affect EsDeeKid too much. We'll see.
Today EsDeeKid also sat front row with a ludicrously capacious bag at Demna’s first Gucci runway show, which Nettspend and Fakemink walked.
