The Union Transfer, a venue created in 2011, has had its fair share of cult followings, and the scene remained the same on March 16 as 19 year-old Swedish rapper Yung Lean took the stage.
Growing up in Stokholm, Jonatan Hastad started his career with The Hasch Boys, naming himself Yung Lean and joining with friends Yung Sherman and Yung Gud among others. As they grew in popularity, the trio broke off from the rest of the Hasch Boys and began producing music on Soundcloud as The Sad Boys.
Lean soon became the most prominent of The Sad Boys, and after two album releases, a culture began to form around his music, and The Sad Boys were no longer just a name referring to him and his friends, but his fanbase as well.
Arming themselves with Arizona Ice Tea, bucket hats and Supreme-line clothing, Sad Boys fans flocked to the Union Transfer and made themselves at home, as could be seen with the rows of gallon tea jugs lining the entrance of the venue. It seemed that every other person at the show was wearing a bucket hat, the most popular of which were the meme-based stock galaxy texture.
The fashion on display even ranged from wanton shirts with pictures of cats on them and “edgy” photos clearly worn to grab attention. The Internet had come to life and was at this show.
While the goofy nature of his fans may portray Yung Lean as a joke, his songs are actually very finely tuned, and a great deal of creativity can be seen in his work. Many of his songs rely on stellar production provided by Sherman and Gud, with Lean himself providing enough vocal prowess to hold the listener in for the wild, strange ride that is his repertoire.
Lean is often criticized for not being the best rapper, but he provides what he needs to in order to make an entertaining song.
The important part of enjoying Yung Lean is to recognize that the rapping, while okay, is not the focal point of the music. One must be able to enjoy the average in order to appreciate the great that is in his music.
When it was time to take the stage, the crew began to fill it with gravestones that looked like they were found in a Halloween store. Oddly enough, after they set up the tombstones, they immediately smoked out the stage and they could no longer be seen. Such is what is to be expected from a Yung Lean show: lazy decor being drowned out by something that honestly made the show as good as it was almost describes Lean himself.
Ultimately; the Union Transfer will wind up holding better shows. While good, there wasn’t anything really extraordinary about the performance. That being said, there will be a lot more shows that will wind up being worse than Lean, as there were no real concerning flaws about what the goofy Swedish rapper had to bring to the table.
Eric Ryan is a second-year student majoring in English. They can be reached at ER821804@wcupa.edu