Lil Peep
Gustav Elijah Åhr (November 1, 1996 – November 15, 2017), known professionally as Lil Peep (often stylized as LiL PEEP), was an American singer, rapper, songwriter and model.
November 01, 1996
Gustav Elijah Åhr was born on November 1, 1996, in Allentown, Pennsylvania to first-grade teacher Liza Womack and college professor Karl Johan Åhr. He had one sibling, Karl "Oskar" Åhr. Åhr grew up on Long Island, New York. His parents were both Harvard graduates who divorced when he was a teenager. Åhr was of Irish descent on his mother's side and Swedish and German descent on his father's side. Åhr claimed to have Swedish citizenship on Twitter.
2015
Lil Peep left high school early to move to Los Angeles and meet up with online friends. Initially living in Skid Row, Los Angeles and dipping in and out of homelessness, staying in Brennan Savage's apartment while Savage pursued a degree. The two eventually went separate ways and Peep met Atlanta rapper and producer JGRXXN and Florida rappers Ghostemane and Craig Xen, living with them while forming the collective Schemaposse. According to Lil Peep, he originally met Craig Xen online and was introduced to JGRXXN who needed a singer. Lil Peep also attempted to attend Glendale Community College during his first year living in Los Angeles. In 2015, Lil Peep released his first mixtape, Lil Peep; Part One, which generated 4,000 plays in its first week. Shortly thereafter, he released his first extended play, Feelz, and another mixtape, Live Forever.
August 2015
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.
March 2016
Lil Peep began to grow in popularity soon after, with the song "Star Shopping" (later released as a single following his death ) from Lil Peep; Part One making waves in underground hip-hop circles. Lil Peep's popularity continued to grow after the release of the song "Beamer Boy" which led to him performing live for the first time with the rest of Schemaposse in March 2016 in Tucson, Arizona. The following month, Schemaposse broke up and Lil Peep was not associated with any collective though they remained on good terms. Shortly after the breakup of Schemaposse, Peep remained living in Skid Row, Los Angeles though he had begun 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. According to Lil Peep, Crybaby was recorded within the space of three days with a $150 microphone. He did a majority of the mixing and mastering himself. Crybaby was released in June 2016. Later than month, First Access Entertainment (FAE) partnered with Lil Peep on a joint venture to invest in and advise him on his career.
September 2016
In addition to providing business guidance, co-founder/CEO, Sarah Stennett, was also a friend who gave both moral and financial support - helping Peep realize his vision. In September 2016, Lil Peep released Hellboy. Songs from Hellboy such as "Girls" and "OMFG" began to clock in millions of views and plays on SoundCloud and YouTube. The success from Hellboy led to Peep going on his first-ever solo tour across the United States, called "The Peep Show" tour, starting in April 2017 and ending in May 2017. In May 2017, the band Mineral accused Peep of copyright infringement for including an unlicensed and uncredited sample of their song "LoveLetterTypewriter" in his "Hollywood Dreaming" track. Peep said that he was only trying to "show some love" with the sample.
August 2017
Lil Peep came out as bisexual on a Twitter post in August 2017; around this time he was dating the actress and singer Bella Thorne. While on the Come Over When You're Sober tour, he had met and started dating Instagram influencer, Arzaylea Rodriguez around the time of his death in November.
August 15, 2017
Soon after the tour was done, Peep immigrated to London, England during a disentanglement with his collective Gothboiclique. In London, Peep began to associate with a new set of people encompassing of figures such as Atlanta rapper iLoveMakonnen and long-term friend Bexey (fka Bexey Swan.) While living in London, Peep recorded Come Over When You're Sober Pt, 1 and Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2, an EP entitled Goth Angel Sinner and an untitled project with iLoveMakonnen. Peep released his debut studio album Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1 on August 15, 2017. Lil Peep also announced and took part in his first World tour, starting in the UK in September and moving to Germany before finishing in the United States in November which was cut short due to his untimely death.
November 15, 2017
On November 15, 2017, Lil Peep was found dead on his tour bus when his manager went to check on him in preparation for that night's performance at a Tucson, Arizona venue. Foul play was not suspected, with his death believed to be from an overdose. In a series of Instagram posts in the hours leading up to his death, Lil Peep claimed to have ingested psilocybin mushrooms and cannabis concentrate. In another, he claimed to have consumed six Xanax pills following a video depicting his attempts to drop an unidentified pill into his mouth several times before successfully swallowing one and shaking a full prescription bottle. A subsequent post was captioned "When I die, you'll love me." In the days after his death, a police report revealed that Lil Peep had taken a nap around 5:45 p.m. before the concert. His manager checked on him twice and found him sleeping and breathing fine, but was unable to wake him. When the manager checked on Lil Peep a third time, he was unresponsive and not breathing. Lil Peep's manager performed CPR before medics arrived, though he was pronounced dead at the scene. Lil Peep's death was recorded on Instagram by his friend Bexey Swan, who believed Lil Peep was asleep. On December 8, the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner released details from a toxicology report, certifying the cause of death was an accidental overdose due to the effects of the pain medication fentanyl and the benzodiazepine alprazolam. Blood tests were positive for cannabis, cocaine and the painkiller Tramadol. Urine tests also showed the presence of multiple powerful opiates, including hydrocodone, hydromorphone (dilaudid), oxycodone and oxymorphone. There was no alcohol in his system.
November 22, 2017
Numerous artists in the music industry paid tribute to Lil Peep following his death, including Diplo, Post Malone, Pete Wentz, Marshmello, Mark Ronson, Zane Lowe, Sam Smith, Bella Thorne, Trippie Redd, A$AP Nast, Rich Brian, Playboi Carti, Ugly God, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Xan, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Pump, Dua Lipa, and El-P. Jon Caramanica, a music critic for the New York Times, held a special remembrance podcast episode to honor Peep following his death which was released on November 22, 2017. Good Charlotte also honored Lil Peep, releasing a cover of "Awful Things", which was shown at his memorial in Long Beach, New York on December 2, 2017. Three Days Grace paid tribute by posting a video on Instagram and Twitter of a remix of Peep's song "Witchblades" featuring Lil Tracy. The remixed song's beat was a slowed down instrumental track of the band's song, "The Real You". Lil Peep would be mentioned by Juicy J (who had collaborated with him before his death) on Rae Sremmurd's Powerglide. Lil Peep was also honored during the 60th Grammy Awards. On June 19, 2018, rapper Juice WRLD released a two-song EP titled Too Soon.. dedicated to him and XXXTentacion, the latter being involved in a homicide relating to robbery. In The 1975 track, "Love It If We Made It", there is a lyric that gives a tribute to Lil Peep: "Rest in peace Lil Peep, The poetry is in the streets".
December 02, 2017
Lil Peep was cremated at Huntington Station, New York and his ashes were placed in his grandfather's garden. On December 2, 2017, friends, family and fans to pay their respects to Lil Peep at his memorial in Long Beach, New York. A memorial was also held in London on the same day as a large picture of Lil Peep was projected onto the side of the Houses of Parliament in central London.
January 2018
Lil Peep was described as "the future of emo" by Pitchfork, was known for being part of a "post-emo revival style of hip hop and rock", and had been described as "arguably the biggest emo icon of the past few years" Regarding his death, in January 2018 John Jeremiah Sullivan of GQ wrote, "When Lil Peep died late last year, he left behind an outsized legacy." To Genius journalist, Chris Mench, his death marked 'just the latest in a long line of high-profile musicians who died young'. Rolling Stone journalist Elias Leight concurred similarly and wrote that Lil Peep's "rise to stardom was powered by relentless drive."
January 12, 2018
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 twenty-four hours of his death, as Wiggy, a director of many of Peep's music videos, released the official video for a then-unreleased song "16 Lines". On January 12, 2018, Marshmello officially released a collaboration entitled "Spotlight". The subsequent 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 entitled "Dreams & Nightmares".
March 2018
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 titled "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 surviving members of Lil Peep's group GothBoiClique. They revealed that there had been unresolved conflict between the two artists, allegedly stemming from latter's history of violence towards women. "Falling Down" was released on September 19, 2018 and peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. The original "Sunlight on Your Skin" version was released on September 27, 2018.
September 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 the project was just awaiting approval from Lil Peep's family. On October 17, 2018, Lil Peep's estate confirmed on his social media that the lead single from Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2, "Cry Alone" was getting released on October 18, 2018. Following the release of "Cry Alone", Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2 was announced to be released on November 9, 2018. On November 1, 2018, the second single from the album titled "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.
November 09, 2018
Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2 was released on November 9, 2018 and 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.
January 31, 2019
On January 31, 2019, the first single from the upcoming collaboration album with ILoveMakonnen, titled "I've Been Waiting" and featuring Fall Out Boy, was released. The song was originally a demo by ILoveMakonnen and Peep then performed on it, spawning a partnership which created up to twenty songs. Fall Out Boy was added to the song after Peep's death.
March 10, 2019
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 an accompanying soundtrack for the documentary, which features a combination of previously released and unreleased tracks.
Late 2019
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.
