Bladee

A pivotal presence in Swedish hip-hop's evolution, Bladee spans cloud rap, trap, art-pop, and post-punk across his output. Emerging in the mid-2010s amid Stockholm's cloud rap rise alongside Yung Lean and the Sad Boys, he rapidly built an online cult following within rap's underground circles. His 2016 debut Eversince crystallized an approach that fused futuristic beats, Auto-Tuned vocals, and motifs of decay with depression. As Drain Gang founder, he has since veered through hyperpop and trance on full-lengths including 333 (2020), The Fool (2021), and Spiderr (2022), part of an extensive catalog that continued with the widely praised Cold Visions in 2024.

Born Benjamin Reichwald, his path opened when fellow Stockholm artists Yung Lean, Yung Gud, and Yung Sherman invited him into their 2012 collective Hasch Boys. The outfit fused drowsy rap-crooning, Auto-Tuned delivery, and hazy, texture-focused production to stake its own claim within the budding cloud rap style. After Lean's original trio departed to establish Sad Boys, Bladee joined them in spirit by co-founding GTB Shield Gang with Whitearmor, Ecco2K, Thaiboy Digital, and Yung Sherman. The two crews operated in tandem thereafter: Bladee first appeared with Ecco2K on the 2013 single "Bleach," then contributed two tracks to Lean's debut mixtape Unknown Death 2002.

Matching Lean's pace, Bladee issued his own debut mixtape Gluee and guested on Thaiboy Digital's 2014 debut Tiger. Rechristened Drain Gang, the crew distanced itself further from Sad Boys and pursued sci-fi textures alongside robotic vocal treatments. That shift surfaced clearly in Bladee's 2016 projects, where the debut album Eversince and the collaborative mixtape AvP with Thaiboy Digital merged his vocal experiments with Whitearmor's forward-looking production. Self-styled "Drain Gang CEO," Bladee shaped the collective's visual identity by creating album artwork and the group's inaugural clothing line, efforts that converged in the 2017 collective debut D&G.

After solidifying the group's aesthetic, Bladee resumed solo work. Closing 2017 with a Working on Dying-produced tape, he made 2018 his busiest year to date by dropping the sophomore album Red Light, the mixtape Icedancer, and two EPs. These releases largely extended his established lyrical and sonic path while expanding textural layers and vocal processing. After headlining Yung Lean's Wings of Desire event at year's end, he returned in early 2019 with several singles, among them the wide-ranging "Apple."

Output remained relentless into the 2020s, spotlighting his emotive yet elusive persona through a string of stylistically varied projects. In 2020 alone he issued three albums: Exeter, helmed by Gud; 333, a hyperpop-leaning effort produced solely by Whitearmor without other Drain Gang input; and Good Luck, a year-end EDM collaboration with Mechatok. The Fool and the co-billed Crest with Ecco2k followed across 2021 and 2022, succeeded by another Whitearmor-produced set, Spiderr. In 2024 Bladee and Yung Lean released the short post-punk and alternative rock-influenced album Psykos, while Cold Visions, a hip-hop return featuring production from Skrillex, James Ferraro, Yung Sherman, and additional contributors, arrived to strong acclaim in April.