Yung Lean Radio Interview Transcript. They were signed alongside Avner to the label The Tough Alliance created, Sincerely Yours, and, altogether, helped make up a formative, bratty scene in Yung Lean’s development. He walks me through the trip to America, how their crew was “in fancy Miami but living a dirty lifestyle.” He calls Bladee an angel for helping him when he was overdosing. “I just make videos and stuff, there's not much more to it than that. It's so vast and immersive, but it's also so infuriating what it does to the world.” After playing shows in America, he sees the place as “total anarchy, the worst of the worst and the best of the best,” especially compared to a small socialist country like Sweden. By his own account, in Miami he was heavily addicted, not just to lean, but to Xanax, marijuana, and cocaine, and combining the drugs daily to troubling effect. Recording Warlord was a whole new experience. He started dressing like a nurse, in hospital scrubs. A list of fundraisers you can support right now. Related Topics. “You put out three rap albums, then you can do whatever you like, I think.”, When Lean returned with “Hoover” last year, after months out of the public eye, I noticed a few exhausted tweets from non-fans: Why is Yung Lean still a thing? It was called the Pink House, and it was in a pink house, down by the ocean with a pool out back. May 15, 2019 - Swedish Artist Yung Lean talks about Warlord, Growing Up, & Touring exclusively to Pigeons And Planes! He plays me a few of the demos. The initial mass interest in Lean and the Sad Boys may have downscaled from viral phenomenon to a core fanbase, but clearly Lean and the Sad Boys continue to court a substantial audience wherever they go. 18 lipca 1996 na Białorusi) – szwedzki raper. Posted by 2 days ago. His dad is a poet, fantasy author, and noted translator of French literature; his mom works in human rights, supporting LGBTQ communities in Russia, Vietnam, and throughout South America. Change the profile pic to a yung lean album cover. Gud’s fascination with America wasn’t enough to make him want to come back there for the early Warlord sessions. Here was this baby-faced white kid with a foreign accent and a strangely lazy flow, rapping with a simple formula, more or less: drugs, depression, and offhand references to pop culture. Lean says it will sound like Daniel Johnston mixed with Lil Wayne. God Faith Support Comfort Restaurants Helpfulness Life Friendship Funny Sister Judgement Politics Uncertainty Fear Being There For Someone I Really Like You Give Me A Chance Cute Love Song Lyrics. In Miami, Barron had an apartment where Lean could crash, and connections: his father, Steven Machat, is an entertainment lawyer whose clients have included Ozzy Osbourne and Bobby Brown. Yung Lean approached American rap as an outsider, became infamous, and then tragedy struck. Post Hip Hops surrealistic and psychedelic era. A 16-year-old white, middle-class Swede embracing gritty rap glamour and peddling a gaudy early-internet aesthetic, Yung Lean was treated as a novelty; these days, Håstad is having the last laugh. “Yung Lean is like water: he’s always changing due to the temperature; how he’s feeling,” explains the rapper, referring to himself in the third person. I could have died, for sure.”, A few months after Lean returned to Sweden, he took a job at a factory. The files that came back from Miami were a total mess, with missing stems and distorted vocal takes. A year later, he has the chance to do better. Joakim from JJ happens to be downstairs, playing ping-pong. 2 2. comments. dafuq yung lean?? W 2013 wydał mixtape, zatytułowany Unknown Death 2002. I can’t say who it is, because he hasn’t released his album yet.”. Lean is at his best when he engages America’s influence while standing outside of it, and Sweden’s influence while standing outside of it too. Either way, Yung Lean and the Sad Boys were cultivating a deathly devoted fanbase with their post-Internet raps and mish-mashed a e s t h e t i c s. "A lot of people were like 'Oh! Many songs have play counts in the hundreds of thousands, and his latest collaboration with Yung Lean, the swirling, trap-inflected “Kyoto,” has over a million plays on SoundCloud. “He was the most high-minded, cosmic person anyone ever met,” said d’Eon, once signed to Hippos in Tanks. Please select your region North America Rest of the World Rest of the World What do you call it? “As a foreigner, I feel like our approach to grabbing U.S. culture is just a part of making yourself heard, getting your presence felt.”. Between songs, I never understand what Lean says because he’s speaking in Swedish. “Everyone says Yung Lean is disposable,” he says. Born Carl-Mikael Göran Berlander, he’s of mixed race heritage — his grandfather was a Nigerian man who met his grandmother, a Swede, in London, and started a family that Gud calls “the result of racial tourism.” When it comes to white rappers, Gud says, “You have people like Slim Jesus and this Stitches dude that just fuck it up. “We’re always one step ahead,” he knowingly states about the collective’s strong work ethic. I’m a musician trying to express myself.” He describes his choice of genre as merely one of circumstance. Cute synths turned darker, and buildups got more dramatic, for an overall effect that’s less like stateside rap production and more like European hard trance — mixed with synth-punk and pop. But on his most successful new material, he makes the best of his natural monotone by simply amping up his energy. Barron was a beloved and respected figure in the North American experimental music scene. And there was Emilio Fagone, Lean’s 29-year-old primary manager, who’s been working with him since he was 16. The new era was open for people that had not belong before. “Creep Creeps” is a single by Yung Lean and his first solo song of 2019. He bounces on the balls of his feet, and, in the front row, a young woman with short blue hair pulls her turtleneck up over her nose. But asserting yourself isn't easy, Gud says, when you come from a country where modesty is a deeply ingrained cultural value. We're not like disposable humans that you can throw in the trash.”, For outsiders making rap music, success often comes down to how well you handle your role. It was Mount Sinai in Miami Beach, the city where he’d been recording demos and rough drafts for his third full-length project, Warlord. 4. Lean may have been born into a world that loved rap, but he can only ever approach it as an outsider. Show more. “The concept is definitely not that complicated,” Lean says, disavowing any critical underpinnings to his music, as he always has. “Miami Ultras” set a new high-point for Lean’s sound. “The main hip-hop channel in this country still sounds like fucking Pete Rock or some Primo Gang Starr shit, and it sucks so bad,” his producer Yung Gud told me at one point. He doesn’t sound like — or sound like he’s trying to sound like — Future or Drake or Young Thug; he attempts no vocal feats in his flows. Strangers rushed in and managed to help Hunter from the flaming wreck, but Barron was stuck. “You know this type of music only happens once every ten years,” Lean says The Tough Alliance’s Eric Berglund told him once. Posted by 2 days ago. “A bit squeamish.”. They were like, ‘This party's too much.’”, Being in America, Lean says, always made him want to seize life to a superhuman degree. That’s how he achieves the something new that Gud is after, but it can be unsettling because, even if Lean’s not trying to, his music involves a lot of unsolved problems — of race and privilege, and of the way cultural exports affect the world. There is also a separate teaser for the track, posted on his Instagram, that incorporates found footage of Miami: rainstorms rocking palm trees, and for a fleeting second, an overturned, burned-out car. ‘Warlord’ takes on a heavier tone than his 2014 debut ‘Unknown Memory’, a direction typified by such lines as “Yung Leandoer don’t give a fuck about the fame” (‘Sippin’) and “I take what I got, I live ‘til it stops” (‘Miami Ultras’ – its accompanying video is a dark affair, depicting Lean alone, in a forest, wearing a dress and digging his own grave). The world's defining voice in music and pop culture since 1952. It’s a short, cold walk from the station to his second-floor studio apartment, reached by an outdoor hallway that overlooks a scraggly bit of leafless trees. save. Yung Lean isn’t like other rappers. Welcome to Interview Diaries—an unvarnished glimpse into the world of our favorite talents.We’ll be asking them to keep a diary, sending us their notes, iPhone pics, doodles, and stray observations about life. Instead of the abstract cover art Lean had teased on Instagram, it featured a crude pencil drawing of a Lean-like character giving the finger. London Koko (May 6) On the February day that Warlord is finally released, in its completed form, I take a train 30 minutes west of Stockholm’s center to the suburb of Sâtra, where Lean now lives alone. Lean’s wordplay and delivery has always been less dynamic than superior American MCs. “Neon signs and palm trees and guys doing steroids, tight fucking tank tops and fast cars,” he says. Reached by a phone number listed on his Senate campaign’s filing papers, Steven says he believed he was within his rights to release the Warlord demos because he helped fund their creation. It's an endlessly complicated position, and many fail. His manager, Emilio, is there; earlier, he’d helped recover a Gucci bag Lean left in his Uber. Jonatan Leandoer Håstad (born July 18, 1996), known professionally as Yung Lean or JonatanLeandoer96 or JonatanLeandoer127, is a Swedish rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer.Born and raised in Stockholm, Yung Lean rose to prominence in 2013 with his song "Ginseng Strip 2002" which went viral on YouTube. At some point on April 7, 2015, Barron left Bladee and Lean in the condo. Lean showed the book to Barron, and Barron told him it was too dark, that he shouldn’t be writing it. Things I learned from watching this: He and his friends often wound up in petty trouble, getting busted for doing graffiti, as happened with his producer Yung Sherman, or smoking weed, as happened with Lean. 53 votes. Lean emerged at a transitional time in the way music is talked about online: sites that once trafficked MP3s now produce earnest thinkpieces. The first is vintage Sincerely Yours, with guitars that are almost uncomfortably bright — picture you’re lying on the beach, which would be nice, except someone has stolen your sunglasses. According to the police report, he was driving about 60 miles per hour when he veered out of his lane and ran into a traffic signal post. Was his music tongue-in-cheek, intentionally bad in an attempt to mock how hollow the genre had become? 11. “I'm gonna release it as Yung Lean,” he says, even though it doesn’t sound very much like Yung Lean. Yung Lean approached American rap as an outsider, became infamous, and then tragedy struck. Our first entry comes from Sad Boy rapper Yung Lean. Russia was where she’d grown up, and Lean says the move to Belarus was partially because she wanted her son to have a childhood similar to her own — though his memories probably aren’t as fond as hers. He shares real experiences with Lil Wayne — the author of one of rap’s most vivid drug-abuse songs, “I Feel Like Dying” — and also Daniel Johnston, an American songwriter who, like Lean, is known for lyrics that are simple to the point of sounding naïve, and who, more to the point, has been diagnosed with schizophrenia associated with, and some say triggered by, an LSD trip that landed Johnston in a mental institution in 1986. Later that same year, he released his debut mixtape, … By Eli Enis. Like Lean’s own personal Max Martins, they were always meticulous, first in the more sampled, slacker “cloud rap” style of “Ginseng Strip,” and then in more unique, wholly composed productions like “Yoshi City,” from Lean’s first studio album, 2014’s Unknown Memory. Fans who listened said the songs sounded unfinished, and expressed confusion over the small-print copyright, which seemed to attribute the release to the label of a man who had passed away: “Hippos in Tanks A division of the Machat Co,” it said on Spotify. There’s an old story in The FADER about The Tough Alliance, how they were polite and unassuming in person, but when they’d perform they didn’t bring microphones; instead, they’d yell and swing baseball bats at the crowd. Another, it appears, is Lean’s way: to borrow from a place with bigger egos. “Like, ‘Yes, finally we can jump on a trend and jump off it next year. That's all I wanna say. A number of fellow Swedes accompanied Lean on the trip. Coming from Sweden, he says, “I wouldn't say we have the same acute responsibility as a white American to step aside.”, For Swedes, American culture is simultaneously alluring and oppressive, Gud says. In a well-lit backstage room, Lean sips nonalcoholic beer, plays cards with Yung Sherman and Bladee, and covers himself in fake blood, in red lines up his arm and under his eyes. “During the night, it was very scary,” he says. Yung Lean Quotes & Sayings . Starz. Hoover Lyrics: Lean / Fattest bag around town, the law what I don't fuck with / Saddest frown around town, the dogs get to barkin', homie / Bag filled with white lies, sword in the drawer, homie But it’s an idea that also comes from a privileged position, one that sidesteps rap music’s origin, so founded on the black, brown, and Latino experience — and the experience in America, at that. We need new things.”. “We look at screens and we’re fed with American information, American music on the radio, American games, American everything. A dunce hat. Like Sherman did with Vår, he prefers to reference more local sounds: djent, a Swedish style of progressive metal that sometimes features sample-based percussion, or Addis Black Widow, a Swedish R&B group from late-’90s that sounded kind of like Craig David. “I was in a mental hospital. When Lean opens the door, wearing a soccer jersey, Polo pants, and Gucci slides, he lets loose the sound of reggae music and the smell of incense. Yung Lean talks about working with Frank Ocean In a new interview spot with MTV News, Yung Lean (Jonatan Leandoer Håstad) dishes the goodness on his collaboration with Frank Ocean on Blonde. Yung Lean was in a mental hospital around this time last year. “We already did the rockstar thing,” he says, “and it’s exhausting.” With Sherman willing to handle production duties in Miami, Gud decided to stay in Sweden. “From the American point of view, I guess it’s aggressive,” Lean says, “but I could relate to the whole attitude.” His favorite Tough Alliance song was “My Hood,” which came out when he was in the fifth grade, a song about loving where you’re from but also feeling disgusted with the place. “You guys are us ten years later.”. Lean just follows his heart wherever it wants to go.”. In the hospital, Lean became paranoid that he’d been separated from his hard drive. Nardwuar interviews Yung Lean & Sad Boys at Chapel Arts in Vancouver, BC Canada ! Poppin' pills like zits/ While someone vomits on your mosquito tits/ Slitting wrists while dark evil spirits like Slytherin slither in with tricks. “I'd throw spaghetti at him, and he'd take out all the stuff from my studio in the basement. “That doesn’t really feel real for someone from Stockholm.” Born Axel Tufvesson, Sherman comes across as the most introverted member of Lean’s crew. He was bleeding from the debris when Bladee called 911. While Gud was cleaning up Warlord, Lean joined Sherman, Bladee, and whitearmor, another producer who helped out on the album, on an assembly line manufacturing shampoo. High and overcome by feelings of connectedness, Lean became detached from reality. The vibe on Unknown Memory was chilly yet oddly pretty, but on Warlord the sounds became even colder. Lean for his 18th birthday and discuss some of the more interesting details about the group. There won’t be any rapping. “I think [we] can go as far as [we] want – if that’s the goal,” muses Lean on what the future holds for the Sad Boys. We've been away for so long, what is he going to do here now? He looks like the teenager he still is. Lean’s team was predictably unhappy about the release: “They went nuts, ‘How can you put this out?’” Steven says.