Lil Peep
Gustav Elijah Åhr, 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 parents were both Harvard graduates. His mother's family is from Oklahoma and his father is Swedish. 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. Later, 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 eventually 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.File:Lil Peep & Fat Nick, Texas, November 2016.jpg|thumb|Lil Peep performing with Fat Nick in San Antonio in November 2016
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 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 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.