COUNCIL HOUSE RAT COMES HOME

Under the glorious title of Council House Rat two of the most hotly anticipated shows of the year of just been announced with homecoming of EsDeeKid in December for two shows at the massive Blackstone Street Warehouse. Both nights are bound to be sell outs so get your tickets quick.

That was an amazing night with an incredible line up of DJ’s but you know it was outside where its either too hot, too cold, or rainy!  I know it was sunny this year but you never know do you. When you leave the house you have to make sure you have sensible shoes on, a jumper in case it gets cold, a jacket in case it gets even colder, and a brolly well because you know its England and we are by the Mersey and even if the sun is bright you never know if the rain will come and then as my dear old Mum would say ‘you’ll catch your death of cold’.

If you don’t know about EsDeeKid then let me enlighten you about this underground rapper  who I think you can  reasonably argue is the biggest musical phenomenon of the last year.  And just to add to the sweetness of the homecoming shows  EsDeeKid  hails from  just down the road  in the most important town in the whole world, Bootle.

The rise of EsDeeKid has been truly phenomenal and how it happened is still all shrouded in mystery. As best we can guess EsDeeKid began rapping  around the city under a different name initially before switching to the EsDeeKid moniker. Then just over a year ago in June 2025 he released his debut mixtape Rebel and everything seemed to change overnight. The interest that this initial release garnered was magnified by the lack of information about the artist.  Everyone wanted to know where this amazing new voice had come from but all they had was he rapped in a Scouse accent. Nobody knew his real name or age or even what he looked like  because he only ever appeared with a balaclava covering his face.

There was even a story, that gained lots of traction,  that EsDeeKid was really an alias of Hollywood star Timothee Chalamet. To be fair though despite this theory being clung on to by a significant number  of people  anyone who listened properly knew that the Liverpool accent was beyond even the finest actor. Chalamet  even joined in on the joke by  making a guest appearance rapping and appearing in the video with EsDeeKid for a remix of 4 Raws just before Christmas 2025. Such was the excitement around the release of the video it felt like the internet almost broke under the strain.

But mystery and intrigue will only get you so far and EsDeeKid has the tunes to back up all the hype. The best known of these is the track with Rico Ace  Phantom a stunning tune which has a ridiculous 350 million streams on Spotify while Rebel reached the top 30 in the US Billboard Charts and top 20 in the UK. When you look at those numbers you get a sense of what an incredible year it has been for this self styled Council House Rat.

His success in the US seems even more remarkable given that there has never been any effort to tone down the strong  Liverpool accent, which  as someone who has never lost my own strong Bootle accent, I wholeheartedly applaud.  It should also help open the door for other local artists like Koj whose new music including tracks like Punk Panther definitely deserves a larger audience.

The last year for EsDeeKid mainly  appears to have been taken up with huge shows in the States , consolidating his success over there. He even  popped up in the front row of major shows at Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks. Personally I wouldn’t have been bothered with all that nonsense but it definitely helps raise awareness of the brand.  From what I hear his head hasn’t been turned by all the showbiz glamour and he still works with the same close group of friends and collaborators.

Anyway EsDeeKid is  is back to doing what he does best with a headline show at All Points East in Victoria Park in London in August  before undertaking a massive tour throughout September and October before taking on Europe. He finishes in December with a handful of UK dates finishing quite fittingly with these two huge hometown shows. Honestly if you can get a ticket you really should because these are likely to be nights that people will be talking about for a long time.

By Kev McManus