Lil Peep (aka Gustav Åhr) was born on November 1st, 1996 and raised in Long Island. He was a mama's boy with a rebellious side. He was 14 when he got his first tattoo: his mother's birthday.
He never cared for public education but got his high school degree anyways. He was emotional but was able to channel those emotions into something beautiful.
From a young age, he was committed to his music and art. Little did we know that this kid would change the hip hop industry forever.
Gustav started making music in 2014 where he would upload it to an unground music sharing platform called SoundCloud where he made the name Lil Peep (peep was a nickname his mom would use for him).
He moved to LA and helped form a rap group called Schemaposse, who he performed his first show within Tucson, Arizona.
Peep later met other SoundCloud rapper Lil Tracy who he collaborated with frequently (on songs such as Witchblades and Your Favorite Dress) and joined gothboiclique in 2016 alongside rappers such as Lil Tracy, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Cold hart, Horsehead, etc.
This was a great way for Gustav to get his name out there and popularized. Slowly but surely he gained a larger and larger following.
By the beginning of January 2017, Lil Peep was named “the future of emo" by Pitchfork. His music had themes of sadness, heartbreak, drug abuse, and lost in his music, but also themes of love and hope.
He was now seen as the leader in this new genre of Emo Rap / Sad Rap, a genre that hadn't really been seen much of before. He had begun to popularize this new music style which is huge in today's music.
That same year Gustav came out as Bisexual proudly on social media (he never cared about what others thought and was unapologetically himself) and released his debut album: Come Over When You're Sober pt. 1. It was this album that solidified Peep's fame. It was a hit. He then announced his world tour.
On November 16th, 2017 shortly after his 21st birthday and his tour had just begun, it was announced that Lil Peep was dead in Tucson, Arizona. He was on his tour bus with a few members of gothboiclique when Ben was found dead from an “accidental overdose on Xanax laced with Fentanyl". There is speculation that a member of gothboiclique might have actually planned his death due to jealousy of his fame. By this time peep was no longer a part of gothboiclique.
It wasn't said that if Peep had lived even just a year longer, he would've been one of the biggest names in the Hip Hop industry. He wasn't destined to be a star, but sadly he was taken from us too soon.
Since his death, new music of his has been released including album Come Over When You're Sober pt. 2 and a collaboration song with ILoveMakonnen and Xxxtentacion. We are still hearing new music from him as time goes on.
Each of his songs filled with passion and love. I think that's one of the beautiful things about Lil Peep, even though he is gone, there's so much of his art to still discover. He lives on through his art.
