Yung Lean took to social media today calling the Swedish government a “bunch of hypocrite lying dirty scumbag racists” in regards to their decision to kick his good friend and musical accomplice – ThaiBoy Digital, out of the country. It seems that though Thanapat Thaothawong AKA ThaiBoy has been living in Sweden for ten years, he’s actually an illegal immigrant being given the boot, and in retaliation, Yung Lean has started a petition to keep him at home.
Sweden is known for having a cultural undercurrent of ultranationalism that borders on xenophobic and racist tendencies so I don’t doubt that Yung Lean’s sentiments at least hold a shade of truth, but I also don’t think that a country as patriotic as Sweden would pay attention to a petition signed widely by foreigners. This has happened before in neighbouring Norway where a popular figure was outed as being an illegal immigrant. Her story was heavily reported on and her extradition protested against but she was still made to leave. However later on, she managed to return on a working visa.
A user of sometimes-realiable source Reddit – /u/Meowsia clearly agrees: “I don’t see why they would care that someone from Australia wants Thaiboy to stay in Sweden”. But when you read Yung Lean’s appeal you can’t help but feel for the dude.
“Thanapat thaothawong has beeen living here for 10 years and he he has made a huger impact on culture than anyone else. His mixtape “Tiger” got a 5 in the swedish biggest newspaper called DN. He’s released music more inspirational than anyone in the last ten years and he has performed at the royal swedish theatre. I love him like my brother and he needs to stay.”
Here at ACCLAIM we love Yung Lean and don’t want to see the Sadboy cry in any context that isn’t musical so if, like us, you have a penchant for telling authority to suck the D, sign Yung Lean’s petition to in the very least make it a pain in the ass to mess with ThaiBoy.
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