![]() ![]() Aside from seasonal affective disorder in the winter, it must be difficult to come up with things to be sad about in a country with cradle-to-grave social benefits, not least of them single-payer universal healthcare. Yung Lean’s song “Oreomilkshake” references glory holes, various drugs, Arizona Tea and milkshakes, all of which he seems to like, but the sad Swede still sounds bummed. Whether you buy it as a real trait of his or as simply an aesthetic choice-potentially a whole other debate-his depression and atonal delivery puts a spin on violence and excess that is at once self-aware (money can also make you unhappy, a common rap theme), and the opposite of self-aware (Yung Lean himself has presumably never been in a position to judge that firsthand). Crying appropriation is a logical first reaction, but I think Yung Lean’s music is more nuanced. His sleepy-eyed gun and money talk is reframed not just by his whiteness, but by his whole depressed pose-his group is called Sad Boys-and general internetty teen-ness, working N64 controllers and Mewtwo Pokemon cards into music videos. I wonder if the moms at the local playground are going to switch to Kombucha now to avoid the thug-life implications of Arizona Tea.ĭuncan Cooper described Yung Lean on Fader: His mixtape, Unknown Death 2000, containing collaborations with Suicideyear, was released earlier this month. Yung Lean is signed to a label called Teaholics, which is fitting, because his crew was formerly called the Arizoned Iced Out Boys, and he brandishes jugs of Arizona Iced Tea in his videos. Little Pain admits that Yung Lean gives off a “sad vibe” but isn’t what he considers truly sad. Yung Lean (formerly “Yung Lean Doer,” because of his fondness for lean) is a 16-year-old white Swede of Stockholm’s Sad Boys crew. Little Pain’s debut mixtape is called When Thugz Cry but he is not yet signed to a label. Some may laugh and shrug it off and some may relate and love it. I’m not worried about people taking me as a joke at all because at the end of the day the music is as real as it gets. ![]() ![]() Sometimes I shed a couple tears and sometimes I full out start bawling. I cry everyday at least once a day, sometimes more. Little Pain is a 21-year-old rapper from Brooklyn, who has only been rapping for about five months but already has a tattoo on his left cheek of streaked tears. Vice is largely responsible for introducing a huge chunk of the world to these perpetrators of emo rap: Little Pain (a.k.a. In time-honored bombastic rap tradition they are trying to one-up each other as the master of melancholy. They are not only expressing a desolate emotional worldview, they are boasting about being the saddest thug of all. There are precursors to this style-Kid Cudi, Joe Budden, MC Homeless, Lil B, and Riff Raff-but a couple of hip-hop artists are basing their entire image and songs around sadness. Eminem, Tupac, Nelly, and Jay-Z have lyrics that can make even the hard-hearted cry.īut this year there is a new manifestation of rap, embracing the vulnerable, lonely, despondent, sad side of the psyche. Sad songs are in every rapper’s repertoire, however tough his persona. Its stereotypical expression is self-aggrandizing swagger, cheerful jubilation, or menacing, threatening anger, but rap has always expressed sadness too. Part of hip-hop’s allure is its expression of extremes of human emotions, balls out, with no thought of consequences or social appropriateness. ![]() Pouty-lipped Little Pain has the bad sadz ![]()
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