Joe Guzman
Equinox Staff
On Nov. 15, 2017, heads were turned when the hip-hop scene lost an icon and pioneer in a sub-genre of rap music called “Emo rap.” Born Gustav Elijah Ahr, this icon was more formally known by the stage name of “Lil Peep.” On that day roughly a year ago, on tour in Arizona, he was found unresponsive on his tour bus. A former Collaborator who goes by the name of “Bexey” had taken a video of the passed out singer, claiming just moments before he was on screen that Lil Peep was in the back of the tour bus working on his muscles and six-pack. When Peep appeared on screen, he was lying/sitting down on a couch with his mouth open and hus head rolled all the way back. Hours later, it was found out that the cause of his death was an accidental fentanyl-Xanax overdose.
A couple of months prior to this, Lil Peep had released his debut album on August 11, 2017. It was called “Come Over When You’re Sober Part One.” Before this, he only had four mixtapes underneath his belt, ten joint collaborative EP’s, as well as one solo effort. “Come Over When You’re Sober Part One” clocked in at a little under 25 minutes and sold 16,000 album equivalent units within the first week. Managing to scrape itself up the Billboard Hot 200, entering in at 168 and launching itself to the 38th spot. With hit singles such as “Benz Truck” (Гелик), “Awful Things,” and the most popular from this album on Spotify, “Save That S***.” The three of them alone collectively racked in (at the time of November 2) 304,652,469 plays on Spotify.
Shortly after the time of his death, the main producer for Lil Peep, Smokeasac, tweeted: “I and peep aren’t done yet; [I’m] gonna carry on his legacy until the end of my time; we still have unreleased beautiful music that we’ve made throughout the year.; #lilpeepforever.” Later, his mother referenced a song peep wrote about killing everybody in his hometown in a video remembering her son. This would later to be known to the public as one of the singles that was going to be on his new album. The song is known as “Cry Alone,” and the album is supposed to be sequel to “Come over When You’re Sober Part One.” It currently is over 35 minutes long and will be released Friday, Nov. 9. The four tracks that have already been released as promo are “Cry Alone” and “Runaway,” appearing on the album while “Falling Down” ft. Xxxtentacion and “Sunlight On Your Skin” ft. Ilovemakonnen were left off as singles.
Excitement for this album hasn’t wavered, and there is a strong following of different types of Lil Peep fans on campus—some more on the casual side, and some more die-hard side. First years and Lil Peep fans Zachary j Feinauer, Michael Beck, and Paige Karavas all represent these types of fans. “I just believe that he has a very niche style of punk hip-hop that teenagers can really connect with.” Said Feinauer when talking what made Peep stand out from his contemporaries. Both Feinauer and Beck’s favorite song from “Come Over When You’re Sober Part 2” is the song “Save that S***”. While Karavas explained “The bright side […] was my go-to song every time I went on long car rides during hard times. (it’s a) Good song.” Beck came to the conclusion that since Peep had a song with Xxxtentacion that suggests a lot of rappers are very tight-knit. Not knowing that the song made after they both died. Lastly, When all were asked whether or not they think he should deserve a posthumous album. Different opinions were given then expected! Feinauer focused mostly on artist saying “I think his death was tragic and all too common in this age of music. He makes mistakes in his life and regardless of how he died he deserves this album.” While Beck thought about the album from the standpoint of the label mentioning how “I think he can have a posthumous album if his record label decides it. I see no problem with it.” Karavas had the answer that came mostly out of left field explaining that “I always kind of feel bad when people collaborate different artists together or release music after their passing. Sometimes things aren’t released for a reason, and they should let him rest in peace along with his unfinished music.”
Joe Guzman can be contacted at
jguzman@kscequinox.com
