Lil Peep died last night. Until then, his star was said to be on a meteoric rise despite the fact that he was actively dying in front everyone’s eyes the whole time. His act had a narcotic effect on tens of millions on YouTube, SoundCloud, Facebook. The trendy pop music magazine, Pitchfork called him a “fresh-faced avatar of post-emo angst that’s not quite rap or rock.” Going forward, he will probably be the poster child for the opioid crisis, prescription drug abuse and the insuperable curse of addiction.
It used to be that pop musicians could get in at least a couple of productive years before succumbing to their demons but Lil Peep’s public self-destruction was his art.
Everyone around him enabled him, even his fans. As news of his death broke, one posted: “Lil peep challenged the stigma around mental health, LGBT issues, gender roles, addiction…let’s please make this about celebrating the amazing things he’s done in his short life instead of writing him off as another pill popping rapper.”
Yes. Lil Peep was far more than his drug addictions but he never overcame them. Sadly, his life’s message and what he came to embody was the destructive power of prescription drugs.
(This video contains profanity).
