Yung Lean Biography

Yung Lean became interested in hip-hop music after listening to albums like 'Get Rich or Die Tryin'' by 50 Cent, 'Mitt Kvarter' by The Latin Kings and 'Illmatic' by Nas. After he met Yung Sherman and Yung Gud in a Stockholm park, in 2012, the three of them built a strong friendship based on their shared love of music and eventually formed the 'Hasch Boys' band along with some other musicians from Stockholm. However, most others later moved to 'Gravity Boys Shield Gang', following which the trio of Lean, Sherman and Gud renamed the band to 'Sad Boys'.

During the next couple of years, they recorded music in Yung Lean;s studio basement, with Sherman and Gud producing and mixing music while Lean provided lyrics and vocals. Most of these songs were made available to the public via his SoundCloud profile. At the age of sixteen, he performed publicly for the first time in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2013, the music video of one of his songs, 'Ginseng Strip 2002', went viral on YouTube with over two million views. The track was included in his EP, 'Lavender', which was released the same year alongside his debut mixtape 'Unknown Death 2002'. The mixtape was named among ‘The 10 Most Overlooked Debut Rap Mixtapes of 2013’ by ‘Vibe’ and the track ‘Ginseng Strip 2002’ was placed in the ‘Top 50 Songs of 2013’ by ‘Consequence of Sound’. Later in September 2014, he self-released his debut full-length album, 'Unknown Memory', which was received with favorable reviews due to being more serious than his earlier works.

While Yung Lean's initial works were dismissed by some critics as "something to get depressed and/or high", he was praised as a promising rapper and producer. With the release of 'Unknown Memory', both his audience and critics began to take him more seriously, with some even comparing him to The Weeknd and Travis Scott. The tours supporting the album in Europe and North America were very successful, and his opening performance in New York's Webster Hall was nearly sold-out. His next full-length album 'Warlord', which featured tracks like 'Fantasy', 'Highway Patrol' and 'Afghanistan', received generally positive reviews, even though some critics were too harsh. His latest studio album, 'Stranger', earned him praise for "channelling turmoil into something cathartic". In his short career so far, he has already worked with musicians, such as Frank Ocean, Bladee, A$AP Ferg and Travis Scott.

Yung Lean has had troubles with drugs since he was in school, and was once put on probation for smoking cannabis when he was 15. His tryst with drugs continued during his musical career, and got him into serious trouble when he came to the Miami, Florida to record his album 'Warlord' in 2015. He overstayed there and became addicted to Xanax, lean and cocaine, following which he had to be hospitalized due to nose bleeding. There, he became paranoid about losing his hard drive and pleaded with his US manager Barron Machat to bring it to him. Unfortunately, Barron, who had taken Xanax and sped at 60 miles per hour, died in a car accident that night. His father came to bring him back to Sweden and he had to stay under heavy medication for a long time. His stage name 'Lean' is a reference to his birth name, as well as the codeine syrup lean, which he was heavily addicted to.

Yung Lean was born as Jonatan Aron Leandoer Håstad on July 18, 1996 in Stockholm, Sweden. His father, Kristoffer Leandoer, is a Swedish poet and fantasy author who also translated French literature and previously owned a book publishing company. Her Russian mother, a human rights activist, works with LGBT groups in Russia, Vietnam, and South America. He spent the first few years of his childhood in Minsk, Belarus, but returned to Stockholm by the time he was three to five years old and grew up in the Södermalm district of the city.