Yasin - 1991 [Official Video]

Yasin’s “1991”

Yasin’s “1991” is a personal account that widens into a critique of how Sweden changed over the decades. It opens with Somalia’s collapse and civil war, and the arrival of refugees in Sweden—including the people who would become Yasin’s parents. He reflects on how family and community ties helped people survive, before turning to the harsher realities of growing up amid segregation and gang violence.

Childhood and adolescence

The verses trace Yasin’s childhood and adolescence. Around 13, he says, friends were stealing cars and committing crimes, while he felt he had no adult to turn to. He describes getting involved in drug dealing at school, smoking, running from police, and watching social services struggle to reach young people.

Later, as a teenager, he recalls gold theft, drug trafficking, territorial violence, and the lure of quick money. A gang leader offers him access to drugs and opportunity, while recognizing that Yasin is vulnerable and under financial pressure at home.

The song’s central contrast

The recurring refrain gives the song its central contrast: violence that once seemed unimaginable in Sweden has become ordinary news. Yasin also connects gang recruitment to political and social tensions, including provocations involving Quran burnings.

A brief bitter joke about his father captures the song’s mix of pain and bluntness: his dad “didn’t go away”—he “just left.”

People mentioned

• Yasin
• His mother and father
• His childhood friends and peers
• A gang leader