Lil Peep

Mixing outsider, alternative rock angst with woozy, mumbling, underground hip-hop, DIY rapper Lil Peep became a huge star with the help of social media and was dubbed "the future of Emo" by the Pitchfork website. He tragically died of an overdose at the age of 21 in 2017. Growing up in the working class suburbs of Long Island, New York, his father abandoned his family when he was a child. Lil Peep (real name Gustav Elijah Ahr) was a sensitive child who suffered with depression and experimented with drugs. He dropped out of high school and completed his diploma via an online course, but became a social outcast, spending his time obsessively listening to punk bands like Good Charlotte and Taking Back Sunday, trap star Gucci Mane and burgeoning Soundcloud rappers Yung Lean and Lil B. With a laptop he began making his own tracks by using the GarageBand music software, and after moving out to Los Angeles he was part of collective called Schemaposse with rapper Ghostemane and producer JGRXXN and later Gothboiclique with Wicca Phase and Lil Tracy. He was still living in a squat on Skidrow when his self-released work 'Lil Peep: Part One' and 'Live Forever' started gaining in popularity and samples of lo-fi, indie rock guitars, warped, stoner beats and raw, opened-wounded lyrics became the back-bone of breakthrough mixtape 'Crybaby' in 2016 and singles 'White Wine' and 'Beamer Boy'. His 'Hellboy' mixtape also helped him notch up millions of plays on YouTube and SoundCloud before his 2017 debut album 'Come Over When You're Sober: Part 1' made the US top 40 and featured hits 'Benz Truck', 'Awful Things' and 'The Brightside'. Covered in tattoos and dressing like a 1990s grunge rocker, Lil Peep seemed to morph together the worlds of Kurt Cobain and Lil Wayne, and in his raps he flipped from bragging showmanship, hell-raising nihilism and raw, personal insights into suicidal thoughts and battles with depression. He also collaborated regularly with Atlanta rapper iLoveMakonnen, toured across the world, came out as bisexual and worked with DJ Marshmello, but his heavy drug use and mental health issues were never far from the surface. On his Twitter account in February 2017 he declared himself a "depressed drug addict who is nearing breaking point", and months later he was found dead before a gig in Tucson, Arizona having suffered an accidental overdose. A year after his death his second album 'Come Over When You're Sober: Part 2' was posthumously released through Columbia Records and unreleased material continues to come out, including his 'Goth Angel Sinner' collaboration with Fish Narc.

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