Yung Lean and Millennial Sadness

I woke up this morning to a surprise! Yung Lean pulled a Beyonce and dropped an 8-track album titled, Frost God.

Millennials have garnered the bad rep of being selfish and narcissistic. In her article, The Persistent Myth of Millennials, Brooke Lea Foster shows us that a lot of writers and intellectuals have devoted their time to proving millennial narcissism, mentioning the popularity of selfies and celebrity figures like the Kardashians and Kanye West. A 2008 study done by a San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge revealed that, since 1970s, college students have behaved more narcissistically. But this study was refuted by other psychologists because the 40-question Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) Twenge used can be interpreted in different ways. For example, agreeing with statements like “I am assertive” and “I want to be more assertive,” which are interpreted as signs of narcissism, can also define leadership, self-respect and self-confidence.

In 1976, Tom Wolfe published a cover story in New York Magazine declaring the 1970s as “The Me Decade.” He was alleging the Baby Boomers as the most self-centered generation. It is understandable that older generations would see young people as overly confident because confidence permeates us through adulthood - getting your dream job, meeting your life partner and achieving your life goals. In fact, every new generation has been labeled as narcissists, according to Foster. While that is somewhat true, I can honestly say that a good portion of us millennials are exactly the opposite of that - we are sad and vulnerable.

We have been told that youth is the best years of our life but in reality it is also the hardest. Young people face a lot of problems as they grow up, from relationships and family affairs to figuring out who they want to be in life whether it may be a skater, a musician, a politician, or a regular Joe. They are feeling new emotions, pushing boundaries and demanding more freedom and respect. Parents, on the other hand, do not want their kids to make stupid mistakes. They want them to follow their expectations and lead a safe path. This conflict/misunderstanding pushes young people in to loneliness and vulnerability.

This constant struggle with growing-up is best articulated by a 20-year old Yung Lean who raps about Transformers, sadness, Blade Runner, sadness, Super Smash Bros, sadness. His clique is named S a d b o y s, after the group’s fetishisation of sadness, alluding to millennial mental state. Contrary to Hip-Hop’s celebrated themes of violence and masculinity, Lean boldly built a persona around nostalgia and vulnerability. His first acts were songs about Pokemon, vintage windbreakers, Nintendo games and Air Force Ones, pop cultures reminiscent of the 90s and 00s. In Yoshi City, his hook was “Smoking loud, I’m a lonely cloud, I’m a lonely cloud, with my windows down; I’m a lonely, lonely, I’m a lonely, lonely.” Lean represents the people with Peter Pan Complex, who do not want to grow up. These people would rather go back in time and enjoy their peaceful childhoods.

When one talks about Lean, his breakout music video Hurt is a starting point. It was the defining moment for him as a distinctive artist and a cultural influencer. Lean dances among floating Pokemon cards, poorly rendered bears and Google image searches of “crying.” Arizona Iced Tea, Japanese letters and Nintendo consoles, both of which are recurring themes in Lean’s aesthetics made their debut in this video. The background features a window 97 screensaver. Lyrically, the intro starts with - “Suicideyear, Sad Boys” - his tendency to commit suicide. He describes his isolation from people with bars like - “Emotion boys we in the UFO” (or maybe he is just saying that he’s high). Then come, Lean’s love for his childhood signifiers - “Broken skies, fantastic fox,” “In Tokyo playing Mario,” “B***h I light up the sky, call me Charmeleon,” “I ain’t Charmander, but I’m nearly on, clearly on drugs.” Fantastic Fox is a Nintendo reference about Fox McCloud from the famous Star Fox franchise. Charmeleon is an evolved version of Charmander. When Lean says he is Charmeleon and not Charmander, he is demanding respect from older adults to treat him like an adult. However, the most advanced version is Charizard. Therefore, the Charmander reference is the perfect example of the millennial predicament, being between childhood and adulthood. In the Pokemon TV series, Ash’s Charmander evolved into Charmeleon but it quickly grew unruly and disobedient, alluding to the rebellious nature of adolescence. Lean also name-dropped Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, who is known for his dreamy, post-modern classics featuring a sad boy as the main protagonist. Lean declares, “B***h I’m Murakami.” The visuals and lyrics all speak one thing - Lean is nostalgic and sad.

The song Hurt recruited a huge millennial fan base for Yung Lean and thanks to millennial social media platforms like Tumblr, it has grown ever since. Despite the fact that he only releases music online from his home in Stockholm, Lean became a universal sensation overnight, earning him sold-out shows in Brazil and the United States. It also tells a bit about how millennial sadness is a global phenomenon, transcending national and cultural boundaries.

In Yung Lean’s best music video, for the song “Yoshi City,” he sits on the hood of a Smart Car with open scissor doors, singing “I’m on my lonely cloud with my windows down,” trying to suppress a smile. Yoshi is Mario’s anthropomorphic dinosaur, Yoshi City is an allegory to Lean’s hometown, Stockholm, where he had fun as a child. In Kyoto, dressed up in Nike windbreakers and a Ralph Lauren dad hat, Lean raps, “I got an empire of emotional, squad see me cruisin’, cruisin’ in my go kart.. I’m Wario when I’m in Mario Kart, Coca Cola veins, I’m insane, Trip through memory lane.” Again, Yung Lean is longing for his childhood when he sipped Coca Cola and rode on Mario go-kart.

The video for Miami Ultras show the Sadboy rapper digging his own grave in a gloomy forest while wearing a pleated floral dress. The video is perhaps one of Lean’s most complex and striking visuals to date, with heavy-hitting themes such as heartbreak and ennui flowing throughout. His latest release, Hennessey and Sailormoon, features a melancholic Yung Lean staring across an empty dance floor, apparently suited up for the lonely venue. He looks lost and confused, with drying tears on his face. Lyrics such as “I love how she dances got me feeling for you, You say that you love me I don’t know if it’s true, When I go to sleep all I ever see is you,” show Yung Lean in a lovesick state. This classic portrayal of vulnerability is an ingredient of millennial sadness as they seek for life partners. Hennessey and Sailormoon also depicts his inner contradiction with drinking expensive liquor to exert status and power yet simultaneously wanting to be innocent and carefree, as a kid. This alludes to millennial’s main source of sadness, growing-up.

I first noticed Yung Lean when I accidentally stumbled upon his collaboration song with Travis Scott called Ghosttown. Being a huge trap-rap fan, I instantly liked Lean’s music, which is made up of southern 808 beats, layered with a heavy auto-tune drawl over Scandi synth-pop melodies. Lean’s hard-to-pin-down production appeal comes from his homeboys Yung Gud and Yung Sherman, who are loosely affiliated with cloud rap, a Hip-Hop sub-genre, remarkable for its funeral aura and melancholy vibe. Or to put it bluntly, a Nordic interpretation of American rap culture.

When you’ve confronted the concert of an up-and-coming rapper who has the potential to blow up, you have to go. For a $20 admission fee, there is little to lose. So, two friends and I arrived half an hour after doors opened to a Yung Lean gig in Santa Ana. Still we could see people lining up. Some of them were wearing bucket hats and some were wearing T-shirts with Japanese texts on them, all products of the Sadboy movement. When Lean came out with his hit Ghosttown, all hell broke loose. There was a 15 minute period where I was just solely focused on standing upright. The smell of marijuana drifted across the venue. Lean was wearing a vintage windbreaker, a signature of nostalgia. When it was all over, I found a group of sweaty sadboys and sadgirls taking pictures of a symbolic remnant - an empty can of Arizona Iced Tea- to commemorate their veteran on behalf of speaking out for their sadness.

Chicago Tribune writer, Allison Stewart, has called out Lean’s songs as “famously about nothing, and about nothingness as a general condition.” Whether that is true is another debate. But Lean is definitely infamous for his semilinear lyrics. In Ginseng Strip 2002, Lean raps - “Get my dick stuck inside a lamp shell, Get it out with sperm cells and hair gel, Swim in Mexico, mademoiselle.” In Emails, it was - “Empire of emotions, Pokemon lotion, 6 hunna emails I ain’t even open, Gucci on my pants, Coke on my teeth, Posted in space I’ll barely ever land, I’m a Sadboy with my Sadboys, We got Sadgirls we got marble pearls.” Vice has  described this “as a natural progression from the freely associative, often nonsensical rhymes of Lil’ B.”

But it’s okay. For Lean's fans, his mostly morose songs about nothing speak to the very anomaly of being a millennial. Life itself is weird and doesn’t make sense. Thus, Lean’s raw yet emotional delivery over auto-tune speaks for their feelings. Millennials are also still in the process of developing their intellect and they may not be able to articulate their inner sadness adequately. Therefore, they read his lyrics as poetic absurdity, hitting important points on loneliness and vulnerability, without going into details. According to a New Yorker article on Yung Lean, Miles, a fifteen year-old said, “Even if you don’t understand what he’s saying, it’s about a feeling - a really heavy feeling.” This is evident in Gatorade - “Galaxy boys, Reality is far away,” “F**k her from the back ain’t that some s**t, Cum in her face I ain’t scared to die,” “Neon polar bears I drink ice tea all day, Million ways posted up in the Milky Way.” They don’t obviously connect but it portrays a dreamy, surreal feeling.

To those arguing that millennials are narcissistic. Lean shows that we are completely the opposite. He wants to connect with fans on a deeper level than selfies. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, when asked if he ever looked himself up on Tumblr, he sounded genuinely horrified. "No, I don't do that. It's an ego boost. I wouldn't want to do that." When asked about selfies, "Yeah, for sure I don't really care for it. I don't like taking pictures, that's very cringe. I turn some people down because I have a life, you know? I can't just walk around and take selfies all day. That's for Justin Bieber, that's not my job." "If someone comes up to you and says, like, ‘Oh, I really like this song, this speaks to me,’ you know? That makes sense. But if you only want to take a selfie and show it to your friends, it's more of a popularity statement, and I don't really (mess) with that. I prefer a proper conversation with someone who cares about my music." Lean is not shallow and he cares about having intimate human relationship than a one-sided celebrity-fan relationship.

The tracks that made it on the top 40-chart of Hip-Hop are infamous for misogynistic and narcissistic lyrics. Mainstream Hip-Hop artists redundantly rap about “f*****g b*****s,” “getting money,” “killing enemies,” “buying lambos and rollies” and “being the best.” This is a common coming-of-age/origin story as these rappers go through systemic hardships to be successful. In my opinion, they fully deserve to brag, given that they are being honest.

Lean also has his fair share of generic Hip-Hop attributes. Some of his lyrics include - “Gold on my wrist,” “Gucci on my pants,” “Coke on my teeth,” “Popping ecstasy like pimples.” If you check out his instagram page, you will see him flexing Benjamin stacks, rollies, Gucci flipflops and True Religion trousers. But we also need Lean to be weird, nostalgic, and soft to communicate the other side of millennial behavior - sadness. We need him to feature more Arizona Iced Tea  than flashy cars and gold chains. This is because not all millennials are narcissistic and narcissistic millennials are not that narcissistic.