Yung Lean

Emerging early among Swedish rappers to attain worldwide notice, Yung Lean shaped the cloud rap and emo rap movements in decisive ways. He launched his trajectory alongside the Sad Boys collective, whose moniker captured the somber tone that defined his output. Struggles with substance abuse and mental health surfaced repeatedly in his initial recordings and personal circumstances as he confronted addiction alongside bipolar disorder. Those pressures informed the somber textures of his first solo projects and persisted across more commercially oriented releases such as 2017’s Stranger, which peaked at number 18 on Sweden’s Sverigetopplistan, 2020’s Starz, and the 2022 guest-heavy mixtape Stardust. Over time he devoted increasing attention to rock and singer/songwriter styles under the name Jonatan Leandoer96, yet he retained the Yung Lean moniker for the 2024 collaboration Psykos with Bladee, an effort oriented toward post-punk and alternative rock rather than rap.

Born Jonatan Aron Leandoer Håstad, he was 16 when he aligned with producers Yung Gud and Yung Sherman to form the Sad Boys near the end of 2012. The following year the crew issued material credited to Yung Lean, among them “Ginseng Strip 2002,” which accumulated two million streams after gaining viral traction. The Unknown Death 2002 mixtape appeared that same year, as did the Lavender EP that supplied “Ginseng Strip 2002” with an official release. His first full-length, Unknown Memory, arrived in 2014 and registered on the U.S. R&B/hip-hop, rap, and Heatseekers charts before supporting tours across Europe and North America. In 2015 he delivered the Adult Swim single “Crystal Clear Ice” and the follow-up album Warlord, then issued the Frost God mixtape featuring A$AP Ferg on “Crystal City.”

By 2017 Yung Lean moved from the darker registers of cloud rap toward polished pop-trap on his third album, Stranger, which reached number 18 on the Sverigetopplistan. The 2018 Poison Ivy mixtape revived the unrefined, home-recorded character of early Sad Boys work. Shortly after the Tribeca Film Festival debut of the documentary Yung Lean: In My Head, he released his fourth album, Starz, in May 2020; the project mediated between his earliest bleak cloud rap and a sleeker, pop-accessible production palette, with the title track acknowledging contributions from Ariel Pink yet listing no additional guests. The 2022 commercial mixtape Stardust, by contrast, enlisted FKA twigs, Skrillex, and Bladee while Lean continued reconciling his personal quirks with broader commercial reach. He further explored non-rap directions through Jonatan Leandoer96, notably with the 2023 singer/songwriter album Sugar World. Psykos, his first complete joint project with Bladee, surfaced in 2024 and foregrounded indie rock and post-punk leanings.