There’s a Scouse in the House—Last Week On VICE: Members Only

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It’s rare that a distinctly British phenomenon crosses over to North America. While U.S. artists are exported fairly easily to the rest of the world, because it is culturally dominant and now half of the Earth’s population knows about Pete Buttigieg and “cilantro” whether we want to or not, the idiosyncrasies of other cultures don’t translate so easily in the other direction. So it’s always fascinating to see what sticks and what doesn’t. Based on the bewildered reception to his biopic, in which he was played by a CGI chimp, Stoke-on-Trent boybander turned crooner Robbie Williams has zero traction across the Atlantic. The Stone Roses never achieved the same level of familiarity as other Factory-era Manchester bands, and Charli XCX only really just “arrived” there despite being a cultural institution in the UK for over a decade.

For reasons that are hard to pinpoint, one artist the U.S. does seem to have embraced immediately and without reservation is the masked Liverpudlian rap sensation EsDeeKid.

It seems unlikely, given his thick Scouse accent and colloquial lyrics, but EsDee has jumped directly from the Mersey to New York Fashion Week, Marty Supreme promo, and parts of the U.S. that by rights should have absolutely no point of reference for what “birds” and “bizzies” are. In fairness his unique mix of goth and trap, chainmail and streetwear, is just as esoteric at home as it is anywhere else, but the question remains: What do people make of EsDeeKid outside of a British context?

Raised in Merseyside and currently living in Indiana, writer Charlotte Landrum traveled to the Chicago date of his Council House Rat tour to gauge what EsDeeKid’s U.S. fanbase looks like. What impressions do they have of Liverpool? What touchstones are they fucking with? And do they know what a council house is? One young fan mused:

“A bunch of rats, a bunch of wizards, a bunch of medieval shit.”

Read Charlotte’s full report from Chicago below:

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These Americans Love EsDeeKid. But Do They Really ‘Get’ Him?

Speaking of U.S. exports, Azealia Banks may or may not have relocated to Israel. The New York rapper and inflammatory opinion-haver posted a photo to X this week of the inside of a building—which looks like it could be either a new-build apartment or a tech start-up office—announcing that she had “moved” to Tel Aviv and was “liking it.” Fact or ragebait, it’s certainly true that Banks has vacated the Washington Heights residence where she famously sacrificed live chickens for spiritual purposes. (A video shared by the rapper in 2016 showed her going at her closet with a sand blaster to remove layers of dried blood and feathers.)

It’s not uncommon, in New York City, to move into a place previously inhabited by a celebrity. But as Eamon Levesque put it in a report for VICE:

“For Harris Ansari, discovering ‘what celeb used to live in my apartment’ helped him answer another question: ‘Why does my closet smell like this?’”

Levesque continues:

“In May, newlyweds Harris and Avani moved into their 3-bed 2-bath on Pinehurst Ave in Washington Heights. There was plenty to love about the space—natural light, high ceilings, ample space for their cat Chutney to explore. One small concern: the floor and baseboards of the guest bedroom closet were caked in a mysterious black substance…”

Read the full story behind the paywall below: