Culture Lil Peep Dead at 21 - Pouring one out for a true wigger.

Lil Peep Dead at 21

Lil Peep, an emerging singer, rapper and YouTube star whose debut full-length album dropped in recent months, has died according to multiple reports.

The Long Beach, New York-raised emo/hip-hop artist (real name Gustav Åhr) was just 21 years of age. Reasons for his passing have not been revealed, though British broadsheet The Guardian cites a suspected overdose.

Peep’s manager Chase Ortega broke the bad news. “I’ve been expecting this call for a year. Mother fuck,” he tweeted.

I’ve been expecting this call for a year. Mother fuck

— Chase (@RealChaseOrtega) November 16, 2017


Lil Peep had a promising career in front of him. His star had been on the rise since 2015 via a series of Soundcloud tracks, EPs and mixtapes, and he enjoyed full traction through his YouTube channel where his videos to "Awful Things," "Benz Truck," "The Brightside" and others clocked up multiple millions of views As the buzz built, Peep signed with agent Cara Lewis and enthusiastic features followed in Fader, Noisey and Pitchfork, which declared him as "the future of emo". In an extensive three-part profile, Medium wrote, "it's obvious Peep is going to blow up."

All the while, the conversation rumbled on about whether he was a rapper or a singer. Was he hip-hop or emo? Peep showcased all those skills on his debut album, Come Over When You’re Sober, which dropped on Sept. 1.

The Peep army was a growing one, as fans tuned in en masse for his refreshing candor about his battles with depression, heartbreak, drug use and his sexuality.

A slew of recorded artists paid tribute to the young performer, from Post Maloneto Marshmello, Rich Chigga and many more. "Peep was the nicest person. Hanging out with him, talking to him about music, the song ideas we were going to do together and touring was so amazing," tweeted Marshmello. "Everyone will miss you man."

Billboard has reached out to reps for Lil Peep. More to come.

 

[Broken Pussy]

Lil Peep was toopoor’s boyfriend. We already reported on his untimely demise over in the Beauty Parlour.

 

[Hui]

I didn't know who this kid was until Mel brought him up. But his last instacringe post was kinda sad.

 

[Fandom Trash]

Doubt it, a British Indie band called Viola Beach died when their car drove off a bridge in Sweden. The album got a brief surge in sales and people were clambering over themselves to declare their genius, but a year later, nobody gives a shit. This prick will be the same.

Yep I remembered that incident. I think the manager was the driver and they were all drunk. But yeah, in those lifestyles (rappers and whatnot), people dont tend to live very long sadly

 

[CWCissey]

Yep I remembered that incident. I think the manager was the driver and they were all drunk. But yeah, in those lifestyles (rappers and whatnot), people dont tend to live very long sadly

The 27 club is a thing for a reason...

 

[Jerry_ smith56]

As bad as his tattoos are you can't help but feel sorry for someone that died so young.

 

[KE 521]

Lil Peep was toopoor’s boyfriend. We already reported on his untimely demise over in the Beauty Parlour.

First!

The Beauty Parlor is exceptional as fuck.

 

[Broken Pussy]

First!

The Beauty Parlor is exceptional as fuck.

Thank you. We are very concerned with your feedback.

 

[FromaCorvairSix]

Someone on his tour bus posted a video of his dead ass corpse.

They don't seem too upset about it.

 

[CWCissey]

Someone on his tour bus posted a video of his dead ass corpse.

They don't seem too upset about it.

GG Allin did it first.

And better.

 

[CWCchange]

And nothing of value was lost.

 

[GG Allin]

 

[CIA Nigger]

never liked his music but it's still sad the reason he died was when he oded his friends were too high/dumb to realize what happened so they posted on instagram and snapchat of them laughing at his body instead of calling for medical attention. the worst part of this is instead of him fading and being a nobody he's probably going to be seen as this generation's Kurt Cobain because he died. I hope people learn from this how dangerous drugs like xanax and lean actually are.

Eh, there's a difference between say, being famous and then dying (or dying in a really exceptional manner/way) and being some random soundcloud rapper that's a "literally who" and then dying. That's why Kurt Cobain is so well known, his band was widely successful.

 

[neverendingmidi]

Eh, there's a difference between say, being famous and then dying (or dying in a really exceptional manner/way) and being some random soundcloud rapper that's a "literally who" and then dying. That's why Kurt Cobain is so well known, his band was widely successful.

Yeah, this is the wigger equivalent of one of Chicago's hoodrat aspiring rappers getting shot. Unsurprising and unnoticeable.

 

[Tookie]

This must be what it feels like when a younger generation starts to take over pop culture. Back in my day, everyone was a man or a woman and did weed or meth. Nowadays, there are 57 genders and everyone is doing weird prescription drugs I've never even heard of.

 

[Apex Predator]

This must be what it feels like when a younger generation starts to take over pop culture. Back in my day, everyone was a man or a woman and did weed or meth. Nowadays, there are 57 genders and everyone is doing weird prescription drugs I've never even heard of.

Meth wasn't even a widespread thing yet in my day. Damn kids. You get used to it. I will say though, the callousness shown by this guy's "friends" is pretty disturbing.

 

[Dick In a Drawer]

Eh, there's a difference between say, being famous and then dying (or dying in a really exceptional manner/way) and being some random soundcloud rapper that's a "literally who" and then dying. That's why Kurt Cobain is so well known, his band was widely successful.

He had a decent following though especially from the angsty teens demographic that actually see him as inspirational. I saw someone on facebook already use his death as an excuse to drink two bottles of lean as a way to mourn

 

[POWER IN MISERY]

 

[Gordon Cole]

He had a decent following though especially from the angsty teens demographic that actually see him as inspirational. I saw someone on facebook already use his death as an excuse to drink two bottles of lean as a way to mourn

As a young buck, I have a lot of friends who are into Soundcloud Rap. Tonight's cyph is...gonna be interesting.

 

[Broken Pussy]

Literally every music publication I follow has mentioned it, so while it’s definitely not the death of a legend or anything, people in musical circles seem to find it noteworthy.

 

[Gordon Cole]

What Lil Peep Meant to Me—And Maybe to You

Most of Lil Peep’s songs addressed the harshness of simply being alive. Listening to them, it seemed more than plausible that he would die young, and now that premonition has unfortunately come true. But it also felt inevitable that he would become so important to so many. He was changing music by brazenly reframing emo through a rap lens. Within a few seconds of hearing his music, you could tell this hadn’t been done before. Not like this.

The first time I heard Peep was on “White Tee,” a song whose beat is basically the Postal Service song “Such Great Heights” with some added hi-hats. It’s not Peep’s best song, but it’s immediately striking—in the video, you can sense his magnetism even before he starts rapping. He rolls an orange Toyota SUV into a driveway, hops out, spits, tugs at his pants, looks at the camera, and gets to it. “I’ll make it look easy, believe me,” he raps, creeping back and forth, doing a funny little stutter. Who the hell is this guy, I wondered?

I started exploring and watched his video for “White Wine.” It stopped me dead in my tracks. The song’s beat sampled a song by the lonely lo-fi group the Microphones, focusing on a sound that is basically one long moan. I knew that Microphones record through and through, so hearing it in another context stirred up feelings of epic sadness and beauty. It seemed completely insane that someone would rap over it and that it would not be a joke. But it clearly was not.

Where the Microphones were poetic, Peep was plainspoken. He was kind of cheesy, too: “I had no one by my side, until this pretty young white bitch hopped up in my ride,” he raps on “White Wine.” Lyrics like that were mostly ignorable, if catchy in his sing-song flow. But then, in that same song, he drops a whopper like, “Lord, why do I gotta wake up?” like it’s nothing. It was that casual intermingling of extreme pain and blasé stuff about girls that made his music so believable and real. Oftentimes, rappers will dedicate a single song on their mixtape to reflect on the painful circumstances that got them to where they are; for Peep, it was every other verse. This tendency toward tragedy was so naturally a part of his consciousness that it wound up braided into everything he said.

Ten million emo bands have grappled with the sadness of adolescence, and while Peep’s music sampled a lot of them, he didn’t play guitar himself, and he didn’t have a whiney croon. He was rapping, his songs some unholy blend of emo and hip-hop that he held together with tenacious charm. It probably shouldn’t have worked—and for many forebears and imitators, it didn’t—but Peep’s songs are all imbued with the essence of this skinny little dude from Long Island with “cry baby” tattooed on his face, who had a predilection for winking and sticking out his tongue. He was a skin and bones sad teddy bear. He made a lot of people angry. Emo people didn’t want to claim him, rap people didn’t want to claim him. He was some ugly hybrid of the two, with lyrics about death and depression and drugs and heartbreak. A young kid in a lot of pain using music to hopefully get better.

When I was a kid I used to beat my head against the wall. I didn’t know why, but I knew it hurt in there and I had to try to get it out. This worried my parents, and they brought me to a therapist, which freaked me out because it meant I actually did have some problems. I tried to deal with those problems on and off through college, until I graduated and decided to ignore them. I spent my 20s in a heavy fog of depression until it got so bad and took over my life so much that I got some serious help. I’m 35 now, and when I hear Lil Peep’s music, it reminds me of that time and that hurt. It reminds me that I made it through, that I tried. It’s devastating that Peep himself will never be able to look back on his problems the same way.

I saw Lil Peep perform once, this past April. It was at a midsize Manhattan venue, and I felt about a million years old. His audience was made up of teens of all colors, evenly split between guys and girls. Half of the kids there were making out throughout the entire set. I thought it was funny: Half of Peep’s songs are these depression anthems, and people are tonguing each other like you wouldn’t believe. Maybe they were taking advantage of not being in front of their parents. Or maybe Peep’s music transcended the sadness it was about, turned it inside out into triumph. The top two YouTube comments on one of his greatest songs, “The Song They Played [When I Crashed Into the Wall],” are “Play this song at my funeral” and “This song gave me an erection.” It’s unusual to generate such diametrically opposing but resolutely true responses.

At the end of that song, Peep wails, “These drugs are calling me: Do one more line, don’t fall asleep.” His problem with drugs was no secret, and it’s awful he wasn’t able to overcome that, even with routine documentation of his struggles. A day before he died, Peep posted a video on Instagram saying he just took six Xanax. In it, he slurs his words, and it’s hard to watch. But he says he’s “good,” that he’s “not sick.” In an interview with Pitchfork earlier this year, Peep was asked if he’s medicated for depression. He said he was not: “Everyone always begged me to, but I don’t want to do it. I just like smoking weed and whatever other drug comes my way.” A cause of death has not yet been announced, but I hope it was an accident, that at least he was only trying to numb his pain, to push through it, to not give in to it.

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/what-lil-peep-meant-to-me-and-maybe-to-you/ (https://archive.is/xWWmQ)