In an interview on the New York Times Popcast with journalists Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, Yung Lean addressed his brief association with the artist formerly known as Kanye West and explained why he chose to distance himself from him.
“Kanye is mentally ill,” Lean said around the 1:06:40 point of the interview, as seen above. “I’ve been there and I feel for him, and I think all this stuff that he says about Jewish people—my grandfather was Jewish… I don’t know, I can’t defend him, but it’s a mentally ill person who still did ‘Flashing Lights.’ … I haven’t seen him for a long time now, ‘cause it’s too much. I can’t really be around it.”
Last year, the 29-year-old Swedish rapper was spotted enjoying a day out at Disneyland with Ye and Bianca Censori. The sighting sparked speculation that Lean, who has collaborated and toured with Ye’s protégé Travis Scott, would work together. Ultimately, a collaboration never materialized, but fans did get a memorable photo of the two on a ride together.
“I mean, when I was alone with him like three years ago and we just had dinner, it was lovely,” Lean continued. “It was fun. It was like two kids sharing ideas, and he has a big heart, and you can tell that it’s all good. But then, the next time I saw him, I could feel that the vibe had gone darker, and then the tweets started coming. It was too much.”
He agreed with the hosts that he chose to distance himself not to protect his image, but to protect his mental health because he has experienced his own struggles with bipolar disorder, which he was diagnosed with in 2017 and is on medication for.
“I mean, the public shit, I don’t really care too much about, but I just felt like, ‘Oh, I’m being dragged into something that I’ve been dragged into myself,’” he said. “And the best thing I could do is not, you know, make a song with this man. It’s more like, ‘I’ve been manic, too, I’ve been psychotic. Lithium works, this works.’ But he’s not going to listen to anyone. And that’s his thing.”
It was then suggested by the hosts that people have often claimed that medication for mental health disorders can impact their creativity, but that’s also something Lean disagrees with.
“That’s not true, not true at all,” he said. “There are certain types of bipolar antipsychotics that don’t numb you down, or dumb you down or take away the creativity. I mean, even when I was really manic and psychotic, I wasn’t more creative; I was just more sloppy. I would do like, ‘Let’s start one song here. Let’s book a flight to India here. Let’s start a painting here.’ … It’s like being on a drug, you think you’re going to do all this cool shit, but you’re not doing anything. So, I do feel for him, and I know there’s a great heart in there, and that’s all I can say.”
Lean added that he feels it’s important to stress that people can still be vibrant, creative artists on medication, and that no one needs to glamorize mental health struggles or drug use.
“You can really be bipolar on medication and still be super creative,” he concluded. “I’m not saying I have it figured out, but right now I feel very close.”
Check out the full interview up top.