The music industry is mourning the loss of Gustav Åhr, born on November 6, 1996 in Long Island, New York, known to the rap world as Lil Peep. His parents were both Harvard graduates and his mother is a first grade teacher while his father is a professor. The musical artist died due to an overdose on November 15 of this year in Tucson, Arizona. His death shocked the music industry and many artists have been honoring him with memorials and tattoos.
Lil Peep was one of the most promising new talents in the music business. Lil Peep began his career in 2015 with his first mixtape called “Lil Peep Part One”. Later that year he had released a second mixtape labeled “Live Forever”. Then in 2016 he released his two most popular mixtapes “Crybaby” and “Hellboy”. He released his music on Youtube and, most notably, Soundcloud, which is why he was known as a “Soundcloud rapper”.
In mid-August of this year he had released his first studio album called “Come Over When You’re Sober Part One”. His music was very popular in the underground rap community and the hiphop industry, but Genius.com said he was heading a new genre of music called “emo-rap”. Many artists have had connections with Lil Peep and, sadly for them, his death broke many of their hearts.
His death was plastered all over the news with articles coming from very popular news sites such as The New York Times, “People”, and “The Rolling Stone.” Since his death was front page news, it sparked conversation and controversy over drug use, specifically the use of Xanax which is what caused Lil Peep’s overdose. However there was allegedly the possibility that the xanax was laced with fentanyl, which could have led to his death. Once people started to criticize and speak ill of the rapper’s use of Xanax, many of Lil Peep’s friends especially fellow rapper Fat Nick, started to speak out about Lil Peep’s drug use. Fat Nick held a memorial in Miami, Florida November 21, during which time he made a speech.
In his speech Fat Nick said, “We live in an age that depression is at an all-time high, anxiety, drug addiction, abuse and all this …. And a lot of people like to put their two cents in it and have never walked in these shoes. but unless you dealt with anxiety or depression first hand, you will never know what it feels like…”. Fat Nick was a close friend of Lil Peep and many other mainstream and underground artists were as well, such as Post Malone, Pouya, both Ruby and $crim from $uicideBoy$, and Lil Tracy.
Lil Peep was only 21 at the time of his tragic death. This especially bothered Post Malone, who gave his opinion on the topic during a podcast with Youtuber “H3H3”, with whom who Post Malone is also very good friends. On the podcast Ethan (A.K.A H3H3) said, “Well, I mean I think in a way it’s important that people realize how dangerous that [stuff] is.” Post Malone reacted, saying that addiction is not what led to his death, depression is what led to it because he was trying to medicate his depression. Post Malone also stated that no one ever asked to have emotional issues.
The point that mainly angered Lil Peep’s friends is that people are using Lil Peep’s death to counter substance abuse when they don’t actually understand what having depression is like.
Following the events of his death his many articles and videos were published from other artists showing commitment to sobriety. Lil Peep’s death began a necessary conversation about depression. He will be forever missed and his music will keep his memory alive.