After announcing the follow-up to his 2016 LP Bug with a cover of Yung Lean’s “Yoshi City,” Uncle Meg is sharing the first single from his forthcoming Butterfly EP on World Bipolar Day. This is not a coincidence—immediately after releasing Bug, Meg changed his gender pronouns and began medical transition, resulting in a confusing few years for the young rapper. “Take Me Away” directly addresses this transition and the effect it had on his mental health, despite the track’s smooth beat and its video’s warm cinematography.
“‘Take Me Away’” was written when I was ten months on testosterone and was starting to be recognized in public as male,” Meg explains. “When I first started my transition, I felt like I was living on a pink cloud for the very first time in my life. I started feeling safe in my body and I was finally able to be present in the world as if I were seeing things for the very first time with a brand new set of eyes. However, I did not realize how much publicly transitioning would take an effect on my mental and emotional health.”
In sharing his video on World Bipolar Day, the rapper hopes to raise awareness of the mental health concerns so prevalent among transgender people, agitated—if not initiated—by an ignorant and sometimes-hostile public. “I definitely did not give myself the credit I deserved going through life being stared at constantly, nobody knowing if I was a girl or a boy or WTF type of alien I was,” he continues. “I was totally brave on the outside, laughing off stares and misgenderings, but after I was physically assaulted and verbally bullied in the fall, I began to sink into a dark hole inside of myself. ‘Take Me Away’ is a song I wrote to acknowledge all of the pain I felt during that time and to recognize suicide and mental illness that plagues my community.”
Butterfly is out next Friday, April 5.
