On November 15, Gustav Ahr, better known as Lil Peep, passed away following a supposed drug overdose at the age of 21. Despite feeling like such a surprise, it only takes a quick glance at his social media posts and a few listens to his songs to realize how close the danger really was.
Go through any of his tracks and it might not be immediately obvious that his final few years were spent in sadness. Most of his popular songs, while still sprinkled with lines concerning his mental health, focus mainly on standard romantic relationships or, in the case of "Benz Truck," all the fun he's having after finding success. At a surface level, he's just another rapper trying to cash in on the edgy aesthetic that's become more popular in the rap scene.
Once you dig a little deeper, though, you'll find a myriad of moody lyrics that more accurately depict Lil Peep's mindset. Usually accompanied by a lo-fi style hip-hop beat, songs like "we think too much" or "Star Shopping" express his feelings of isolation and inferiority respectively. Once again, the quality of the songs themselves are debatable, but at the very least these types of tracks felt much more honest to himself than a song like "Awful Things."
I'm not going to pretend that I was a huge fan of Lil Peep or that I even liked his music, because I didn't. I never enjoyed the blend of emo vocals and trap beats that made him popular. I still feel that other artists have conveyed depression far better than he did. However, it's clear that his music reached people. Through his songs, Lil Peep wore his heart on his sleeve, and those who were going through the same type of struggles could find comfort in knowing someone else understands.
Regardless of the quality, Lil Peep's music was more to him than just an "aesthetic." However, until his death, too many onlookers, including me, didn't take him seriously. Depression has become so commonplace that a significant portion of society has accepted it as some kind of phase that we're expected to power through on our own. Combine that with the recent wave of moody Soundcloud rappers hitting the mainstream, and it becomes difficult to distinguish the real calls for help from posers trying to board the bandwagon.
It's easy to forget that underneath their lavish lifestyles, these artists are human beings with their own issues and vices. Lil Peep may not have garnered a massive following during his life, but to his fans, his work was a means of coping with difficult times. Hopefully he found the happiness he was searching for.
