The “underground” is having a moment in the UK rap scene.
Led by artists like fakemink, Jim Legxacy, and skaiwater, the burgeoning “UK renaissance” has become one of the most exciting hip-hop stories of 2025.
However, there is now a new figure starting to make waves, a masked rapper by the name of EsDeeKid. Shrouded in a balaclava in all his public appearances, he has become one of the most talked about new rappers of 2025, thanks to the TikTok success of “Phantom” and his rumored connection to Timothée Chalamet (more on that later.)
“Phantom” is a song featured on his debut album, Rebel, which dropped in the summer, and just made its debut on the Billboard 200 chart. Much like his rage-driven counterparts in the U.S. underground, EsDee raps over some of the most intense, ear-catching beats in hip-hop, marked by haunting Digitone synth lines and blown-out 808s layered over hard trap and off-kilter jerk grooves. With his thick Liverpool “scouse” accent, EsDee fires off bars like he’s got endless breath, talking his shit while repping his hometown.
EsDeeKid has never done an interview, so little is known about him. But we did some snooping around. Here is everything you need to know about EsDeeKid.
Where is he from?
EsDeeKid hails from Liverpool, England—a city not too far from Manchester. He drops hints of his background on “4 Raws” when he raps, “I'm a scumbag, I was raised in Liverpool slums, lad."
On X, he’s constantly repping his hometown. In one post from June 2025 he reflected on his success stating: “grateful for life did all this from a council estate in liverpool all built off scraps mate thank you all.” (The term “council estate” is a reference to a specific district in Liverpool similar to US counties.)
How much music does he have?
The earliest song on his SoundCloud is a remix of Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles,” released in May of 2024. The track retains the airy keys from the original but adds new hoodtrap drums, with EsDee’s aggressive rapping contrasting the slower beat.
From there, he dropped a number of loosies that see EsDee leaning further into a darker sound than the 2016 hit, including “Palaces,” the track that first put him on people’s radar and has since racked up north of 2 million streams on SoundCloud.
And then, on June 20th, 2025, came Rebel.
What song blew him up?
Released in February 2025, “LV Sandals” helped catapult fakemink into wider recognition; EsDeeKid, the main rapper on the song, benefited also. The track’s addictive chorus, with fakemink stuttering the words “L-L-L-Louis V Sandals,” supported by verses from EsDee and Rico Ace, made it one of the biggest tracks off Rebel.
But it’s not the song that really took off.
In September, “Phantom”—which is driven by the stop-and-slow drums provided by producer Wraith9— started becoming the soundtrack for countless DIY trailers and memes, picking up millions of views in the process. The song is getting huge. As of publication, “Phantom” has over 70 million streams on Spotify, and Rebel has been one of the highest-streamed rap albums on Spotify, the last week, gaining 6.2 million streams daily.
What does he sound like?
The balaclava and medieval armor EsDeeKid wears in the “Century” video reflect the aggressive tone of his music.
Many of his tracks are driven by eerie synth lines, distorted bass, and his producer’s “ok” tags tucked into the mix. As a rapper, EsDee’s strength is his tenacity—he leans into a rapid-fire delivery, overwhelming listeners with tightly packed bars while slurring and rolling the ends of his words. If you want examples, check out tracks like “Panic” and “Mist.”
Why do people think he’s Timothée Chalamet?
One of the most attention-grabbing aspects of EsDeeKid is his MF DOOM-like mystique; publicly, he always dons a shiesty—or “bally,” as he calls it in his raps. This has left rumors about his true identity to run wild. Easily, the craziest conspiracy theory centered around EsDeeKid is that his true identity is Oscar nominated actor Timothée Chalamet.
The rumor was fueled by a series of pseudo-clues dropped by both the rapper and the actor. It dates back to August 7, when a post titled “Is timothee chalamet really esdeekid?” appeared on the rapper’s subreddit. Since then, the rumor has continued to snowball as X users circulated side-by-side comparisons.
Then on November 11th, a TikTok user by the name of @gothauntie0 floated the theory in a four-minute mini-video essay. The most compelling piece of evidence presented was a focus on the eyes which actually look quite similar.
@UndergroundSound and its sister page, @UndergroundSound.uk, also fanned the flames by making multiple comparisons of the faces of Timothée and EsDee.
Jake and Ben—who run the pages—spoke to Complex specifically about the creation of a meme that splits EsDeeKid and Chalamet’s faces. That image has since become the go-to reference for comparing the actor and rapper."
Jake explained that “Ben made a split screen of the two of them…and then people ran with our split screen.” “I, maybe, expected 2k likes,” Ben adds. “It has now gone viral. It has gone everywhere, and @HiddenNY posted it all over and I was like, ‘That is crazy.’”
There is also the scarf. Over the summer, EsDeeKid was seen wearing the same Alexander McQueen skull scarf that Chalamet has been spotted wearing multiple times over the past year, including at SNL 50. While it’s entirely plausible that both a rapper and an actor could be sporting the same streetwear item, this observation also fueled rumors that they might be the same person.
What has Timothée Chalamet said about EsDeeKid rumors?
Chalamet—who is getting ready to release a new movie, Marty Supreme, next month—has mostly been mum. He was recently in New York City promoting the Marty Supreme jacket where he was getting peppered with questions asking if he was EsDeeKid.
We do know he’s pretty tapped in. Back in August, Chalamet popped up at a fakemink show in London. He’s long been a hip-hop head, showing love for artists like Lil Uzi Vert, Cardi B, and, of course, his co-star Tyler, the Creator. He’s even been interviewed by Nardwuar and, at one point, was knighted by the Base God, Lil B.
Who are EsDeeKid’s closest collaborators?
EsDeeKid has developed a tight circle.
His main collaborators are producer Wraith9, another UK talent who produced every track on Rebel, and fellow rapper Rico Ace, who appears four times across the eleven-track project. The two have undeniable chemistry: their voices complement each other’s timbres, with Rico’s slick, fluid delivery contrasting the hard, staccato punch of EsDee’s vocals. At times, they sound like they are passing the mic back and forth between verses and choruses.
EsDeeKid’s most well-known collaborator is fakemink, who has also had a meteoric rise this year, with co-signs from Drake, Frank, and Playboi Carti. These two have been locked in for a minute, with collaborations dating back to late 2024 when EsDee did a remix of fakemink’s track “Tropical.”
Who are his co-signs?
Earlier this week, he was announced as an opener for one of Yung Lean’s UK shows. Another notable co-sign comes from Yeat, who has flicked up with the Liverpool rapper. Could a collaboration be on the horizon? Last month, an EsDeeKid affiliate posted a pirate flag—the emoji EsDeeKid has adopted—alongside a bell, which Yeat has popularized, on X. The post came after the two linked up at the JD Clout festival in Poland over the summer and Yeat has continued to show love to EsDee on social media.
Nettspend and OsamaSon also linked up with the Liverpool rapper when they played shows in the UK in July and September, respectively. While Jack Harlow was seen bumping “LV Sandals” back in March.
So…who is he?
Well, this one is tough.
Right now there is so little information about EsDee that we do not know too much about him. His identity has not been confirmed, although Rolling Stone reported finding an alleged CashApp account linked to him listing “Damario Jones.”
His age is also open to speculation, but given the ages of his peers, we can assume he’s quite young. In August, he posted on X that he “did all dis as a teenager.”
As for the rumors that he’s Chalamet, EsDee’s dedicated fans aren’t buying it. On his subreddit, users have largely rejected the conspiracy theory, jeering at the “newgens” who believe Timothée could be the Scouse rapper. Instead, these fans are more focused on another theory, which is finding out the truth behind EsDee’s previous alias, Dualspines.
In 2023, EsDee was featured on a Dualspines track called “Altered;” when listening to the song now, the vocals sound like the same person throughout. Since the release of that song, Dualspines has gone ghost, leading some fans to believe they were actually the same person all along.
What’s next for the Liverpool rapper?
EsDeeKid has become too big for the U.S to ignore. On November 11 he announced an eight-city world tour where he will be going through cities like New York, Chicago, Sydney, and Montreal in early 2026. Right now, tickets at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City—where fakemink played in September—are sold out and will run you anywhere from $700-$1000 on third party sites. If that’s not indicative of him being worth the hype, I don’t know what is.