Nigeria: I was diagnosed with mental health condition – Singer YCee (Video)

Nigerian singer and rapper, Oludemilade Martin Alejo, popularly known as YCee, has opened up about his struggle with mental health, revealing that he was diagnosed with a mental health condition in 2020.

Speaking in a recent episode of the Afropolitan podcast, YCee disclosed that the situation also contributed to his break from the music industry.

The ‘Omo Alhaji’ crooner said he was hospitalised in London for three months after the diagnosis before later returning to Nigeria to continue treatment and therapy.

In 2020, I got diagnosed with a mental health condition during the lockdown. I was in London for six months and was in-and-out of hospital for about three months.

“I had to return to Nigeria to continue treatment because of the type of Visa I was on. Coming back to Lagos and getting into the system of mental health in Nigeria, it was a very very long six years.

I was on medication and had to be hospitalised several times and still dealing with therapies.

“It was up and down. Sometimes it is looking good and sometimes, it just gets really dark,” he recalled. The rapper added that he is now stable after treatment and therapy.

“I was diagnosed with a mental health disorder in 2020 🥲

After medications and multiple hospitalizations, I had to accept that the version of me I knew wasn’t coming back. It affected my creativity — I could no longer freestyle like I used to.”

— Ycee pic.twitter.com/7pMM3Nxarc

— SKB (@seyikanbai) June 24, 2026