It’s been nearly a year since rapper Lil Peep died at the age of twenty-one. He’s back in the news because a new posthumous album, Come Over When You’re Sober Part 2, is being released, and because so many hip-hop artists are speaking out against addiction and are crying out for help for their mental health as well.
As Variety reports, at a release party for Come Over, Peep’s mother spoke out about the loss of her son from opioids.
The Message of Lil Peep’s Death
Lil Peep died nearly a year ago at the age of 21. It’s too young for anyone to die, and when a young artist passes, it can be especially tragic considering how much music they could have continued to give the world.
Come Over When Your Sober Part 2 premiered in New York, and the listening event was tastefully handled in Lil Peep’s memory.
At the event, Peep’s mother, Liza Womack, told the audience, “This album is an important album because it is the work of a young, creative, honest, trailblazing artist. This album is also important because [Lil Peep] is dead. But this is the album he would have made if he were living.”
Womack continued, “Young music artists in this field are dying too often. The posthumous release of a young artist’s music is a problem you are all going to have to face. You are facing it now: What do you do when a young artist dies long before his time, leaving behind a legacy of finished and unfinished work and a legion of heartbroken fans?”
She concluded, “This is the album he would have wanted.”
The Opioid Crisis Hits Hip-Hop
The U.S. opioid crisis has hit all walks of life, and there’s been a more intense focus on drug abuse in hip-hop than ever. It’s not just opioids that hip-hop artists are hooked on, Xanax has also been a major problem as well. These days there are rappers that are proudly sober, while others still struggle and are looking for help.
The death of Lil Peep hit the hip-hop community hard, and musicians of other genres also felt the loss as well. Right after he died, one rapper tweeted, “Even if you don’t know who [Lil Peep] is this bring up a HUGE issue we NEED to discuss. Hip hop has a drug abuse problem! Too often do we promote things that will literally kill us and say nothing when something like this happens. WAKE up ppl.”
Another rapper tweeted, “Depression isn’t trendy, it’s an awful rotting feeling. Lil Peep deserved a happy ending.”
Thankfully the stigmas around mental health and addiction for hip-hop artists are disappearing, and more are seeking help. And perhaps the music that Lil Peep left behind will also be a cautionary tale for people who many who are suffering from addiction and are looking to quit.
Come Over When You’re Sober Pt. 2 will be released on November, and the first single from the album is “Cry Alone.” Rolling Stone is calling the song “bittersweet, somber and haunting,” and it features lyrics that are indeed haunting to hear today: “I don’t wanna die now, I just did a line of blow right now…”
