Rapper fused hip-hop, emo
GUSTAV ‘LIL PEEP’ AHR
Lil Peep, the young rapper whose mix of intimate emo lyricism and foggy underground hip-hop resonated with a young crowd that loved both genres, has died. He was 21.
His death Wednesday while on tour in Tucson was confirmed to The Times by Sgt. Pete Dugan of the Tucson Police Department.
Dugan said the the rapper, born Gustav Ahr on Long Island, N.Y., had been booked to perform at a bar called the Rock.
His tour staff had not seen the artist before the show time, Dugan said, which prompted his manager to check on him. Ahr was found unresponsive in the tour bus about 9 p.m. The Tucson Fire Department and police could not revive him.
Based on paraphernalia found at the scene, Dugan said the suspected cause of death was an overdose of Xanax, which some rappers take as a party drug.
Ahr grew up in Long Beach, N.Y., the son of a college professor and elementary school teacher. He dropped out of high school and moved to Los Angeles to create an unlikely but appealing mix of early-aughts emo samples and cuttingedge hip-hop.
Ahr quickly gained popularity in 2015 on the streaming site SoundCloud. He spoke frankly about suicidal impulses and his heavy drug use. In the burgeoning world of SoundCloud-famous rap, “Xanax” has become a popular metaphor for wanting to feel dissociated from the world and pain.
In 2016, he released his first mixtapes, “Crybaby” and “Hellboy.” They were largely recorded in his skid row apartment in downtown L.A.; the proximity to glamour and despair provided the backdrop to his writing.
Fans responded to his candor about drugs, his emotional swings from bravado to desperation, and the intimacy of his performances, which included a stage setup featuring the mattress from his bedroom.
On the popular single “Crybaby,” Peep mixed the hip-hop cockiness and depressive tendencies that defined his world view: “And I got this vibe, I swear it’s perfect to ride to / I wanna die too, we all wanna die too.”
He released his debut album, “Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 1,” to wide acclaim in August.