Lil Peep

Biography

Gustav Elijah Åhr (Swedish: [ˈoːr]; November 1, 1996 – November 15, 2017), known professionally as Lil Peep, was an American rapper and singer-songwriter. He was a member of the hip-hop collective GothBoiClique, and is credited as being a leading figure of the emo rap sub-genre and an inspiration in alternative youth subcultures. Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to an American mother and a Swedish father and raised on Long Island, Åhr started producing and releasing music on SoundCloud in 2013 under the name Trap Goose, later changing his stage name to Lil Peep because his mother had called him "Peep" since he was a baby. Two years later, in 2015, he emerged as an immensely popular musician on the platform following the release of his single "Star Shopping", and his popularity grew further with his release of mixtapes Lil Peep; Part One and Live Forever later that year. In 2016, Lil Peep released his widely acclaimed mixtapes Crybaby and Hellboy. He also participated in collaborative musical projects, leading to the release of California Girls and Vertigo. Lil Peep's first live performance was as a member of Schemaposse on February 12, 2016, in Tucson, Arizona. Later that year, he toured briefly with Fat Nick, Smokepurpp, and others. In the spring of 2017, Lil Peep embarked on his first solo tour, performing to packed venues in three Russian cities, making his way across western Europe, and then across the United States. Soon after the tour, Lil Peep moved to London, where he recorded his EP Goth Angel Sinner, and in August he released his debut studio album, Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1. While his mixtapes explored emo, trap, lo-fi and alternative rock, his debut album was a transition into pop-punk and rap rock. His second album, Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2, was released in 2018 and debuted at number four on the Billboard 200. On November 15, 2017, Lil Peep died on his tour bus before a scheduled performance in Tucson, his second to last scheduled show on a 33-date tour of the United States. The Pima County medical examiner's office, which conducted toxicology tests on Lil Peep, ruled his cause of death an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a powerful opioid, and alprazolam, a benzodiazepine sedative. His death was observed as a great loss to 21st-century music. "He could have been his generation's Kurt Cobain", a Rolling Stone profile stated. A documentary film about him, Everybody's Everything, was released in 2019.

== Early life == Lil Peep was born Gustav Elijah Åhr on November 1, 1996, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the second child of first grade teacher Liza Womack. His maternal grandfather is John Womack, a former Harvard University professor of Latin American history and economics and a specialist on Emiliano Zapata, a leader of the early 20th century Mexican Revolution. He had one sibling, Karl "Oskar" Åhr. His mother's family is from Oklahoma and his father is Swedish, and both are Harvard graduates. Åhr said he was a Swedish citizen in 2016. His Swedish citizenship was granted to him through his father in accordance with Swedish law, which automatically grants Swedish citizenship at birth to anyone with at least one Swedish parent. Before turning five years old, he and his family relocated to Long Beach, New York, on Long Island.

== Education == Åhr attended Lindell Elementary School, located just across the street from his mother's apartment in Long Beach. In third grade, Åhr was placed in Long Beach's gifted and talented program, and in middle school, he was placed in accelerated classes. He played the trombone and tuba, and expressed an interest in music and fashion from a young age. In 2012, at age 15, Åhr's parents separated. The following year, around age 16, he began experiencing anxiety, according to his mother. He began self-medicating with marijuana and Xanax. Lil Peep had a close relationship with his mother, going so far as to tattoo her initials and birthday on his arm as his first tattoo at the age of 14. Following his parents' split, he moved with his mother and older brother to Long Beach, New York, where he would record "Lil Peep; Part One", Feelz, Vertigo, most of "California Girls", "Garden", "In the Bedroom I Confess", "Mall Music", "Romeo's Regrets", and several tracks that were released as singles, including "Star Shopping". As a teenager, Lil Peep was a self-described loner who made most of his friends online. Inspired by underground acts like Seshollowaterboyz and iLoveMakonnen, Peep made music while residing on Long Island under the pseudonym "Trap Goose" and lived temporarily with childhood friend Brennan Savage until both decided to move to Los Angeles. Åhr attended Long Beach High School in Lido Beach, New York. In 2012, the school was impacted by Hurricane Sandy, which caused the school to close for several weeks. When the school reopened, the faculty and administrators were more relaxed on students, which led Åhr to enjoy his junior year of high school more than the prior years. But when he returned for his senior year the following year, a new administration had been installed that was unfamiliar with the student body and culture. An exhausted Åhr was ready to drop out, but was assisted by a teacher named Maria Hartmann to finish school. With the help of two other teachers who Åhr knew and trusted, he finished high school by completing his last two necessary courses, English and social studies, and graduated six months early in January 2014. Later that January, Åhr was accepted into SUNY Old Westbury on Long Island, but chose not to attend, and instead enrolled as an out of state student at Glendale Community College in Glendale, California, where he enrolled in one class with a middle school friend. After his first semester at Glendale Community College, Åhr also chose to leave, and enrolled at Nassau Community College in Uniondale, New York, on Long Island. In fall of 2015, in his only semester at Nassau Community College, Åhr took four classes online, including two business classes, one criminal justice class, and one art history class, and was named to the dean's list. Instead of returning for his second term, Åhr dropped out, and began performing with Schemaposse. By the end of 2015, he completed a large body of work in his bedroom. At the age of 18, Åhr got his first face tattoo, a broken heart below his left eye, as a sign of commitment to avoiding a straight life. "A tattoo on your face is gonna stop you from getting a lot of jobs," he later said.

== Career == In February 2016, he relocated to Los Angeles to begin a music career, performing for the first time under the stage name Lil Peep. He moved to Los Angeles, he later explained, because living on Long Island depressed him.

In Los Angeles, Lil Peep initially lived in Skid Row, where he dipped in and out of homelessness, staying at Savage's apartment while Savage pursued a degree. The two eventually went separate ways, and Peep met Atlanta rapper and producer JGRXXN, Florida rapper Ghostemane and Houston rapper Craig Xen, living with them while forming the collective Schemaposse. He originally met Craig Xen online and was introduced to JGRXXN, who needed a singer. Lil Peep also attended Glendale Community College during his first year in Los Angeles. In 2015, Peep released his first extended play, Feelz. This was followed by his debut mixtape Lil Peep; Part One, which generated 4,000 plays in its first week. Shortly thereafter, he released a follow-up mixtape, Live Forever. Feelz was described by Peeps close friends as sounding reminiscent of Dylan Ross, an artist who Lil Peep studied and was inspired by. In fall of 2015, Lil Peep began to grow in popularity, garnered by the popularity of songs such as "Star Shopping", later released as a single posthumously, and made waves in underground hip hop circles. Lil Peep's popularity continued to rise after the release of the song "Beamer Boy", which led to him performing live for the first time with the rest of Schemaposse in February 2016 in Tucson, Arizona. In April, Schemaposse broke up and Lil Peep was no longer associated with a collective, though they remained on good terms. Shortly after Schemaposse's breakup, Peep began to associate with Los Angeles-based rap collective GothBoiClique, featuring members of the group on his full-length mixtape Crybaby. The group shared a squat in Skid Row with Peep and often shared beds. Crybaby was recorded over the span of one month and was completed hours before its original release on SoundCloud in June 2016. Peep completed a majority of the mixing and mastering himself. In August, First Access Entertainment (FAE) partnered with Lil Peep on a joint venture to invest in and advise him on his career. In September 2016, Lil Peep released his fourth and final solo mixtape, Hellboy. Songs from Hellboy such as "Girls" and "OMFG" received millions of views and plays on SoundCloud and YouTube. Hellboy's success led to Peep's first solo tour across the United States and Europe in the spring of 2017, which included performances in Russia and the UK for the first time in his career. In May 2017, the band Mineral accused Peep of copyright infringement for including an unlicensed and uncredited sample of their song "LoveLetterTypewriter" on his track "Hollywood Dreaming". Peep said that he was only trying to "show some love" with the sample. Soon after the tour was completed, Peep was involved in a disentanglement with Gothboiclique, and emigrated to London, England, where he associated with Atlanta rapper iLoveMakonnen and longtime friend Bexey, and recorded Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1 and Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2, the EP Goth Angel Sinner and Diamonds with iLoveMakonnen. Peep released his debut studio album, Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1, on August 15, 2017. Shortly thereafter he embarked on his second world tour, beginning in the UK in September and moving to Germany before finishing in the United States in November, which was cut short by his death.

=== Posthumous releases === After his death, Lil Peep's fanbase and popularity grew quickly, resulting in a significant increase in sales and streams of his music. The single "Awful Things" from Come Over When You're Sober, Part One charted, becoming his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 79. Due to Peep's prolific work rate, a number of songs and projects were completed prior to his death. The first official posthumous release arrived within 24 hours of his death, as Wiggy, a director of many of Peep's music videos, released the official video for the then-unreleased song "16 Lines". On January 12, 2018, Marshmello officially released a collaboration titled "Spotlight". The video for "Spotlight" was released on February 12, 2018. On January 15, 2018, rapper Juicy J released the song "Got 'Em Like", which featured Lil Peep and Wiz Khalifa. On January 27, 2018, SoundCloud rapper Teddy released a song collaboration with Lil Peep, "Dreams & Nightmares". In March 2018, Peep's music archive was acquired by Columbia Records. On May 13, 2018, a posthumous single, "4 Gold Chains", featuring Clams Casino, was released as well as a music video. A collaboration album between Peep and rapper iLoveMakonnen is expected to be released on Makonnen's label Warner Bros. On August 17, 2018, Makonnen announced a new Lil Peep single, "Falling Down", a reworking of "Sunlight on Your Skin" that he recorded with Peep in the fall of 2017 in London. The new version features recently deceased rapper XXXTentacion, who recorded his verses following Peep's death. The creation of the single was condemned by some surviving members of GothBoiClique, who said there had been unresolved conflict between the two artists stemming from latter's alleged history of violence towards women. This was disputed by other close friends of Lil Peep. "Falling Down" was released on September 19, 2018, and peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. The original "Sunlight on Your Skin" was released on September 27, 2018. On October 14, 2018, Lil Peep's estate revealed that his first posthumous project, Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2, was finished in September 2018 and Lil Peep's executive producer for the project, Smokeasac, confirmed that it was just awaiting approval from Peep's family. On October 17, 2018, Lil Peep's estate confirmed that the lead single from Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2, "Cry Alone", would be released on October 18, 2018. Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2 was released on November 9, 2018. On November 1, 2018, the second single from the album, "Runaway", was officially released. On November 7, 2018, the third single, "Life is Beautiful"—a remix of the track "Life" from the Feelz EP—was released. Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2 debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 with 81,000 album-equivalent units (including 43,000 pure album sales), making it Lil Peep's first US top 10 album. On January 31, 2019, the first single from the upcoming collaboration album with iLoveMakonnen, "I've Been Waiting", featuring Fall Out Boy, was released. The song was originally a demo by ILoveMakonnen; Peep then performed on it, spawning a partnership that created up to 20 songs. Fall Out Boy was added to the song after Peep's death. On March 10, 2019, the documentary Everybody's Everything, which chronicles Lil Peep's life, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival. On November 1, 2019, the estate announced the release of the soundtrack to the documentary, which features both previously released and unreleased tracks. In April 2019, "Gym Class" and "Star Shopping", two Lil Peep singles that were originally released in March 2016 and August 2015 respectively, were re-released onto all streaming platforms by the Lil Peep estate. The 2016 EP Vertigo was subsequently released by the estate to streaming platforms on March 5, 2020. The Peep estate officially released the Crybaby mixtape with most samples cleared to all streaming platforms on June 10, 2020, to coincide with the four-year anniversary of the original release. The track "falling 4 me" was missing as it could not be cleared with Radiohead. The estate released the Hellboy mixtape with most samples cleared on September 25, 2020, the fourth anniversary of its original release. The song "drive by" was reproduced due to sample clearance issues. On January 26, 2021, the estate announced that the California Girls EP was to be re-released. It was released on January 29, 2021, with a music video for the song "lil kennedy". Later, on June 30, 2021, the estate announced the re-release of the Lil Peep and Lil Tracy collaboration EPs, Castles and Castles II. They were released on July 2, 2021, with video of past live performances of certain tracks from the EPs. In the fall of 2021, the estate released Friends and High Fashion, two previously unreleased EPs made in collaboration with Yunggoth and Harry Fraud, respectively. On May 20, 2022, the Feelz EP was re-released, with the videos for "feelz" and "life" also being released. On December 2, 2022, the mixtape Live Forever was re-released, with the music video for the mixtape's title track also being released. On September 1, 2023, the estate released the collaboration with ILoveMakonnen "November" on all platforms. The estate also confirmed the duo's 2017 collaboration album Diamonds would be released on September 8, 2023. On November 10, 2023, the estate released the project Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2 (OG Version). The album features the original recorded versions of nine songs from the eventual Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2 release from 2018. It also featured the first official release of the song "in the car". In March 2024, the estate released Hate Me, the previously unreleased EP that included the original version of "Spotlight". Teen Romance, a collaborative EP with Lederrick, was re-released in June 2024. His debut mixtape, Lil Peep; Part One, was re-released on September 18, 2024, to coincide with the nine-year anniversary of its original release. On November 1, 2024, which would have been Lil Peep's 28th birthday, the estate released the song "Latitude". The track was originally recorded in 2014, and was one of the first songs he ever made.

== Fashion == Lil Peep had been interested in fashion since his teenage years, and during the last months of his life he modelled for Vlone and was invited to and attended several fashion shows such as Balmain men's show at Paris Fashion Week and Moncler Gamme Bleu MFW Mens Spring Summer show in Milan. Nico Amarca of Hypebeast said, "Even though Peep's brand of trendy sits on a far more niche spectrum than most modern-day tastemakers, something that largely attributed to his success. In a time where genuine individuality is becoming increasingly obsolete, Peep was the tattoo-covered, Manic Panic-hued mall rat the creative world needed to disrupt its ever-growing homogeny." Rapper Playboi Carti described Lil Peep as a "trendsetter". His style has been described as evoking fashion styles associated with emo and mall goth. He often wore items including graffitied jackets, colored fur, and pink clothes. He cited Fat Mike, Marcelo Burlon and the Casualties as style influences. In a 2017 interview with GQ, he stated:

I never dress the same way for a week—I'll dress like a whole other person the next week. I like to get weird and mix things. Not necessarily draw on the streets, but mix darker, dirtier cultures with high class shit. And kind of fuse them together and see how they can become one. And I think that already happens when I put on any really elegant piece of clothing, because of the way I look. You expect me to dress like a fucking punk. In late 2018, it was announced that a Lil Peep clothing line was being created called "No Smoking" (stylized as "NO SMOK!NG") which was developed before Lil Peep's death.