"It's a mentally ill person, who still did 'Flashing Lights'" - Yung Lean explains why he chose not to do a song with Kanye West

Swedish rapper Yung Lean recently spoke about his relationship with Kanye West and explained why he chose not to continue working with the rapper. According to Complex, Lean and West, professionally known as Ye, have collaborated on reference tracks for Ye's Donda 2 (2025) and Lean's Stardust (2022).

Their collaborations are not available on the albums, but they can be found on Spotify or SoundCloud. One of the songs was called Maintenance, for which Lean had recorded a short reference track. Maintenance was released as part of Donda 2 in 2025, but the final version did not contain Lean's recording.

During his interview with The New York Times' Popcast, which aired on November 5, 2025, Lean said Kanye West, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016, was "mentally ill." He also said that while he felt for West, he could not defend the rapper for his remarks about Jewish people.

"Kanye's mentally ill. I've been there, and I feel for him... All this stuff that he says about Jewish people, my grandfather was Jewish, I can't defend him, it's a mentally ill person, who still did 'Flashing Lights.' I haven't seen him for a long time now, because it's too much...I can't really be around it," Lean said.

He continued:

"I just felt like, 'Oh, I'm being dragged into something that I've been dragged into myself.' The best thing I could do is not make a song with this man."

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Yung Lean spoke about meeting with Kanye West

During his interview with Popcast, Yung Lean said he had a "lovely" time with Kanye West when they met three years ago, adding that it felt like "two kids sharing ideas." However, he claimed that the next time he saw the rapper, the "vibe had gone dark."

Yung Lean also said that he began putting space between himself and West after the latter's tweets, saying the situation was "too much." For context, West posted multiple anti-semitic posts on X in February 2025, which included praising Hitler and calling himself a Nazi.

It is unclear when Yung Lean and Kanye West last met. According to Complex, Lean was seen with Ye and his wife, Bianca Censori, at Disneyland in California in April 2024.

"When I was alone with him, like three years ago, we just had dinner, and it was lovely. It was fun, it was like two kids sharing ideas. He had a big heart. But then, the next time I saw him, I could feel that the vibe had gone dark. And then the tweets started coming, and it was too much," Yung Lean said.

Kanye West and Bianca Censori at the 67th GRAMMY Awards (Image via Getty)

Yung Lean also spoke about his mental health in the Popcast interview. When the interviewer asked whether he believed being on medication impacted an artist's creativity, Lean disagreed, saying that he was less creative and "more sloppy" when he was manic.

The Swedish rapper continued that people should not "glamorize" drugs or mental illness, adding:

"You can really be bipolar, on medication, and still be super creative. You can be swaggy without being drunk all the time or, you know, doing pills."

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Yung Lean has been vocal about his mental health in older interviews. During a 2020 interview with Paper Magazine, he spoke about his substance abuse and psychosis, adding that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2017.

He said the diagnosis left him feeling "relieved," continuing, "I can take medication, I can talk to people. This is not a mystery, it's a disease."

Edited by Juhi Marzia