bladee

Bladee (real name Benjamin Reichwald) is a swedish rapper, singer, designer, media/visual creator and most well known member of the artist collective drain gang. he is an artist under the YEAR0001 record label.

abstract lyrics, ethereal beats, and a voice like no other, bladee's music is truly unique and immensely influential to the underground. througout the years, hes frequently changed styles and experimented with expressing himself as an artist.

Brief History

His first ever known music venture was his band, krossad, an amateur noise band bladee was a part of when he was 13. this part is very unimportant besides for the fact him and fellow member of dg ecco2k were a part of it. i dont know much besides from that besides him and ecco went to school together (i thinK?)

2011-2015

sometime much later he began posting songs on soundcloud under the name "ken burns". the songs he made were pretty shit but an interesting look at his life then. heres one of the songs he made (ft ecco then 'malcolm sex', prod whitearmor then 'DJ CANNABIZ'

he was then introduced to yung lean by his brother and they began making music. he featured on lean's project "unknown death 2002" (2013) and they would become frequent collaborators who work with eachother even beyond music, like bladee becoming a designer for his merch brand, yung lean gear.

the two groups bladee and lean are a part of; drain gang and sadboys, are also very interconnected in history and aesthetic. they all frequently collaborate and work on stuff together. most fans of one at least know the other.

2014 bladee releases his debut album gluee, a sweet, ethereal, jarring take on rap. its seriously one of the most ahead of its time projects ever, espeically considering this was released in 2014....but ill stop here (look at the project review section for my opinion on it).

many singles were released, many of them really beautiful, all using the same sound he achieved in gluee; emotional, abstract ballads and loosely tied together raps lathered in autotune over ethereal and adventourous beats. most people (non-drainers) would probably listen to these songs are hate it but to me its very special, maybe even perfect. its so beautiful and healing

he was supposed to have released a project called rainworld but it never happened :( compilations of what it mightve been like are on yt.

2016-2017

at this point, everyones kind of blowing up (especially yung lean after kyoto/unknown memory) so they have more money and 20 year old white people love to do drugs so the guys did drugs and now its become a pretty prevalent theme in his songs.

then in 2016 he dropped eversince, his second studio album and favorite among many of his fans (myself included?!)

taking a completely different direction from his previous work. stripping away the autotune and evolving past the jarringly industrial sound gluee pushed, eversince embraced a dirtier, more raw, disgusting yet angelic approach.

most of the songs he released at/after this point are pretty much lost to time but this period was some of my favorite output from him tbh. bladee is forever ahead of his time and its the most true in these years; his sound he developed years ago now perfectly predicted as well as helped shape the landscape of the modern-day underground scene.

later in the year, bladee releases working on dying, a project executively produced by producer group working on dying. it featured more what would be considered "proper rapping", and has a very dirty, faster-paced sound which has aged extrodinarily well considering the current sound of the underground (probably thanks to the wodg production). its also a very clear transition from eversince to what would be red light the following year.

2018-2019

these years were pretty pivotal for bladee and gtbsbe as a whole. firstly, he dropped red light may of 2018. it, once again, progressed from the sound of eversince. the beats were more 'alive' and rythmatic which paired with his autotuned, melancolic melodic delivery more akin to singing than rapping. following the release was the announcement of bladees first solo show at some place in london idfk.

from then on, hes slowly moving away from his overtly sad, pessimistic style to something else. he releases a bunch of smaller EPS which all range in aesthetic but all fit within yet advance his style.

finally, in december, bladee drops the mixtape icedancer, executively produced by australian producer group rippsquad. it had delay being put onto streaming services because of improper use of a song in the last track, but in the end it was resolved.

icedancer was a huge change in style for bladee. dropping everything he had before, bladee instead embraced an electronic,

it hasnt been a long time since ive known of bladee, id say late summer to mid fall of 2021 or 2022 (cant remember) i found him through a youtube channel i liked who kept talking about him so i checked him out. but in the very short span ive known of him, listened to his music, i feel like ive legitimately changed as a person.??

i know its a joke to be like hahah bladees for like emo fucks who do ketamine and wear dog collars n cat ears and like yeah i find it funny but hes deadass one of my favorite artists to date. his art is so special, not only music, but paintings, design, outlook on life (as portrayed through his music) and just the way he presents himself…i guess??? largely androgenous, never clearly showing his face/appearance, themes cryptic and largely up for speculation, etc. its hard to describe him, someone whos so abstract with their art so i guess thatd be natural.

when i say hes “changed me as a person”, i really kinda do mean that. hes genuinely such a good lyricst. even in his old stuff, before he got really spiritual and angelic with the lyrics, i still resonate with it. and its even more apparent in his new stuff, being abstract, spiritual, taking in lots of religious themes, and always using the sort of “lore” hes built up around the numbers 3, 6, 9, variations of his group drain gang’s name throughout the years (gtb, sg)/different stylings of it (i.e. d9), etc. etc.

his new angelic style’s theme i would describe to be seeing the beauty of both love and death, purity, sinning and repentment and playing with those concepts. when i first realized this, it did kind of make me realize parts of me i wanted to change for the better. not like id become a devout christian and i now believe in life after death or something, but take the messages that align with me and carry them into life. to not fear death, for example, a message he now uses frequently as the basis for his lyrics.

like with all great music in my opinion, i start off hating him. think it was the autotune and what i then perceived to be the weirdass shit sound palette. now i cant get over how amazing all his work is.

most of his production done by a select few common collaborators and close friends, which have come and gone in frequency as he continues changing his sound. its always so good though. fucking 808s that hit perfectly, his signature camera shutters or shit like thunder sounds (esp. present on the fool) and bloopies and bleepies and synth and stuff its all great. i love it. it makes his magical persona even more magical.

especially on his old stuff (2013-2015) you get some really golden moments. on the topic of his old era, he was literally pioneering a genre trippy cloud rap sounds shit and establishing aesthetic/visual trends and motifs popular today.

i cant help but look through his album cover work, fashion style, music vidoes, etc. and just be blown away by how much of it still holds up now. esp now in the...y2k grunge whatever the fuck era of the internet it feels so surreal because he (along with gtbsbe as a whole)'s work from so many years ago is literally like the exact energy & style people are trying to push now. i cannot stop talking/thinking abt how much hes influenced.

his discography is so expansive because hes evolved and had so many eras, you can find almost anything for any mood or atmosphere youre into: autotuned, emotional, sad ass songs to feel like shit to, more poppy, uplifting tracks, everything inbetween, but its all uniquely him-coded.

something else thats so unique about him is his art. hes made a lot of his covers, some for others (i.e. yung lean), as well as held an art show and shown some on instagram.

his style is really something, consisting of things like overexposed/heavily edited videos, glowing components, angular shapes (especially in his “drawing/painting” art) often used to create strange, abstract “characters”, cluttered collages of text and photos, with the reappearing motifs of 3-6-9, and bladee's drain gang's logos used throughout.

overall, awesome little guy. hes pretty cool tbh