Yung Lean arrived on the scene in the early 2010s at the peak of the cloud rap movement. Coming out of Stockholm, Sweden, Lean was only 16 years old when he began blowing up online with songs like “Ginseng Strip 2002,” “Hurt,” and “Kyoto.” He also dropped a mixtape and album, Unknown Death 2002 and Unknown Memory, the latter of which earned him a sold-out US tour. Anyone who listened to Yung Lean’s early music would be familiar with his obscure references, unique spending habits, and constant substance use. He rapped over dreamy and hypnotic instrumentals that made cloud rap so infamous. People didn’t take him seriously, and most of his early music was made fun of. Regardless of criticism, it didn’t stop him from becoming one of his generation’s most influential and talented artists.
It was on the US leg of the Unknown Memory tour that Lean and his friends began to abuse substances heavily. Towards the end of the tour, Yung Lean decided to stay in Miami to work on his next album as well as to “calm down” from the long and restless tour. He stayed in Miami with his collaborator and friend, Bladee, as well as his manager at the time, Barron Machat. It was during this time that much of “Warlord” was written and recorded, which coincided with one of the darkest periods of Lean’s life. The drug use had ramped up, and the upscale Miami apartment that the trio was staying at quickly descended into a drug den. As Bladee said in a documentary with Vice: “Things were not right.” On April 7th, 2015, Yung Lean fell into a drug-induced psychosis and was sent to the hospital. The next morning, Barron Machat died in a car crash while drunk driving to the store. It was a tragic incident that Lean wasn’t informed about for over two months after the fact. He was brought back to Sweden and stayed in treatment for a while. Once he was released and doing better, he went back to the studio to finish “Warlord.”
The atmosphere and aesthetic of “Warlord” is the absolute opposite of Yung Lean’s previous two projects. The album sounded like somebody on the brink of insanity and desperately trying to escape whatever hell they found themselves in. Its loud, crashing drums, heavy synths, and emotionally tortured lyrics simultaneously excite and haunt listeners.
The opening track “Immortal” sets the tone of the project with punchy drums and menacing 808s that complement the ghostly synth. While there isn’t much lyrically going on in this song, it sonically brings the listener into Lean’s state of mind during that period . The next standout track is “Hoover,” which is probably the harshest and most distorted song Yung Lean has ever come out with. This song explores his “rockstar lifestyle” up to that point, with references to not caring about his life and heavy drug use. “Af1s” is one of the catchier and more mainstream songs on “Warlord,” accompanied by a feature from Drain Gang collaborator Ecco2k. “Hocus Pocus” is one of the more emotional songs and contains some of Lean’s most vulnerable and reflective lines of the whole album. He frequently repeats “take control of me” throughout the hook, referring to his excessive drug use and acknowledging that he might not make it out of his current situation. Yung Lean talking about using psychedelics could be the reason why he fell into a psychosis.
The album closes with “Miami Ultras,” a direct reference to his time spent in Miami. It was recorded before he had “detached from reality” and demonstrates the pain that he was experiencing. It samples Billy Bragg’s 1983 song “New England”, which is used brilliantly throughout Lean’s track. In the verse, he says “fade to grey, everything can’t stay/I smoke so much, went away/ I’m in Leanworld, let my mind stay.” Yung Lean predicted his breakdown before it happened, and the “Leanworld” line is a reference to a track on his debut album “Unknown Memory,” which also reflects the state of mind he was in while recording this track. On the bridge, he says “I miss some places, I wished we live on another earth.” This line could be directly alluding to Barron’s untimely death, though it could also be a general statement about living in an alternate universe. It’s clear throughout this track and throughout the whole album that Lean is at his lowest. Yet, among the dark clouds of his mind came a project that would separate him from his contemporaries, and influence a whole new generation of artists.
If you were to go back to 2015 and tell someone that Yung Lean would have a substantial influence on music, they would laugh at you. “Warlord” propelled Yung Lean from being just an ironic internet sensation from Sweden, and turned him into a true musician. After “Warlord,” Lean dropped another project that year called “Frost God,” started a new alternative music project named jonatanleandoer127 (now called jonatanleandoer96), and formed a Swedish punk band named Död Mark with his friend Yung Gud. His career up to this point in time has been quite long, and he’s still only 28 years old. Rappers such as Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, and Travis Scott have cited him as a major influence, though his influence can be felt all over the place in music. He has collaborated on songs with the likes of Frank Ocean and FKA Twigs and more recently appeared on a remix of Charli XCX’s song “360” with Robyn.
Jonatan Leandoer’s story of loss, suffering, and tribulation isn’t unique in the world we live in. “Warlord” is an album about overcoming the dark parts of ourselves that we fight every day. The pressures of growing up on top of newfound fame and fortune are some of the reasons why he went through such a dark period. The internal battle that he fought took a toll on him and those around him. Yet, emerging from his mental dystopia came something terrifyingly beautiful. His experience changed him for the better, and later on helped elevate him to new heights. What world might we live in if we turned our pain and struggle into outlets that helped others?
Cooper Israel can be reached at [email protected].