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| Ycee |
Nigerian rapper and singer Ycee has opened up about his battle with mental health, revealing that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
Naija Brain reports that the 33-year-old artiste made the revelation during a recent livestream with Carter Efe, where he recounted his journey through diagnosis, treatment and recovery.
Ycee, whose real name is Oludemilade Martin Alejo, said he was living in London when he was diagnosed and spent about three months in and out of the hospital.
“In 2020, I got diagnosed with a mental health condition, and that was during lockdown. I was in London, deep down into lockdown. I was in and out of the hospital for maybe three months,” he said.
The rapper explained that he later returned to Lagos after his visa expired and continued receiving treatment in Nigeria.
According to him, he had little understanding of mental health before his diagnosis, making the experience even more challenging.
“Before 2020, mental health was a statement that I hadn’t uttered before. Coming back to Lagos and getting into mental health in Nigeria, it was a very long six years,” he said.
Ycee disclosed that his recovery involved medication, therapy and multiple hospitalisations, adding that the condition often left him struggling through dark periods.
“I was on medication, and I was hospitalised several times. I was dealing with therapy. So many things. Sometimes, it looked good. Sometimes, it just gets really dark,” he said.
The artiste said the illness also took a heavy toll on his music career, affecting his creativity and contributing to his prolonged absence from the industry.
He noted that his 2021 project, Love Drunk, did not receive the promotion it deserved because of his mental state, while his 2022 single was also affected by his health struggles.
“My last project was in 2021, Love Drunk, but I didn’t apply myself enough to push that because of the state of mind I was in. The last single I released in 2022 as well, there was so much going on,” he said.
Reflecting on his journey, Ycee said he initially struggled to reconnect with the person he was before the diagnosis but eventually accepted that he had to embrace a new chapter in his life.
“The last four years have just been me trying to know who I used to be, but at a point, I just realised that that boy was not coming back, so I had to look forward. I think by the end of 2024, things started looking up again, and I started feeling more like myself,” he said.
He added that the most painful aspect of the condition was losing the creative spark that had always come naturally to him.
“The darkest part of everything I went through was how it affected my creativity. Making music is something I find quite naturally. I would be in sessions, and my brain is just foggy,” he said.
When asked to identify the condition he had been battling, Ycee confirmed it was bipolar disorder.