YOUNG LEAN – UNKNOWN MEMORY ALBUM REVIEW BY THE DON

When you hear the term Sad Boys 2001 the last thing that comes to mind is hip hop. A year ago a friend sent me a video of a young white kid with a bucket hat, rapping off beat, with a rather strange video on a track entitled “Ginseng Strip 2002”. Brushing off the video as a joke, I was months later formally reintroduced to the artist now known as Yung Lean… Read the rest after the jump.

With a fantastic production team (Yung Gud, Yung Sherman, Whitearmor) and video editing that is way above average, Lean has managed to create an image for himself after the release of his first tape “Unknown Death 2002”. This created a great amount of buzz as he garnered millions of youtube views and was even put on the ballot for the xxl freshman list for 2014. This brings us to his newest release which leaked a few days ago but was officially released on itunes the 25th, entitled “Unknown Memory”. While this style of music is very opinionated in terms of whether you can feel the vibe or not, this is a great release for Yung Lean, which even features a verse from Travi$ Scott. As music critics online begin to rip into the often mumbled and inaudible lyrics while praising the production value of the project, you really can’t look at the album like any other generic and monotonous music that is being pumped out within the industry. Sad Boys is a movement, much like the Based God Lil B formed, that has a cult following due to its rarity. I believe the reason I enjoy it so much is because its so different from what we hear every day. This music is a reflection, in my opinion, of how Europeans interpret the American rap culture and replicate it through their own lens in every single way, from musical technique to style in general. It will be interesting to watch and see where this movement heads as Yung Lean and the Sad Boys crew continue to tour worldwide for a second time, not to mention their multitude of prior European exclusive tours. Check out his single “Ghostown” featuring Travi$ Scott above and his newest video “Yoshi City” from the Itunes available album Unknown Memory.