Ycee opens up about his battle with bipolar disorder, saying a mental health crisis derailed his music career

Nigerian rapper and singer Oludemilade Martin Alejo, known as Ycee, has spoken openly about his long-standing battle with bipolar disorder, revealing how the condition disrupted his personal life and career over the past few years.

The award-winning artist made the revelation during an appearance on the Afropolitan Podcast, where he opened up about his diagnosis during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 while living in London.

According to the 33-year-old musician, the diagnosis marked the beginning of a difficult chapter that forced him to face mental health challenges for the first time.

“In 2020, I was diagnosed with a mental health condition, and it happened during lockdown. I was in London, deep in lockdown. I was in and out of hospital for probably 3 months,” he said.

Ycee explained that after spending months receiving treatment in the UK, visa-related issues ultimately forced him to return to Nigeria, where he continues to deal with his condition.

Reflecting on that time, he admits that mental health was something he had barely considered before his diagnosis.

“Before 2020, mental health was a statement I had never made before. Coming back to Lagos and doing mental health in Nigeria, it was a very long six years,” he said.

The rapper revealed that his recovery journey involved a combination of medication, therapy and multiple hospital stays, with progress often coming in stages.

“I’m on medication, and I’ve been hospitalized a few times. I’m going through therapy. A lot of things. Sometimes, it seems fine. Sometimes, things get really dark,” he added.

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Ycee said the condition had a major impact on his creative process, making it increasingly difficult for him to write and record music, a skill he once considered easy.

He revealed that these challenges contributed significantly to his reduced presence in the music industry and affected the promotion of some of his projects.

“My last project of 2021, ‘Love Drunk’, but I didn’t put enough energy into pushing it because of the state of mind I was in. The last single I release in 2022 too, there’s a lot going on,” he said.

The artist further explained that much of his last year was spent trying to accept a new reality after the diagnosis changed the course of his life.

“The last four years I was just trying to figure out who I was, but at some point, I just realized that the kid wasn’t coming back, so I had to look forward. I think at the end of 2024, things started to look up again, and I started to feel more like myself,” he said.

Explaining the emotional impact of the experience, Ycee said the most painful consequence of the disease was the impact it had on his artistic expression.

“The darkest part of everything I went through was how it affected my creativity. You know, because making music is something that comes naturally to me. I’d be in a session, and my brain would be foggy,” he says.

When asked directly about his diagnosis, the rapper identified the condition as “Bipolar Disorder.”

Ycee rose to national prominence after the release of his hit song Condo, which featured Patoranking and earned him two nominations at the 2015 Nigeria Entertainment Awards. He later consolidated his status in the industry with popular songs such as Jagaban and Omo Alhaji, receiving recognition on major music awards platforms, including the All Africa Music Awards and The Headies.

This recognition has further added to the conversation around mental health awareness in the Nigerian entertainment industry, where more and more public figures have begun to speak openly about their personal struggles and recovery journeys.