First on SoundCloud: Studio Sessions Berlin ft. Smokeasac

 

A year ago, the music industry lost a future contributor when 21-year-old rapper Lil Peep (born Gustav Elijah Åhr) died of an accidental overdose. Known for his ability to skillfully mesh hip-hop elements with emo vocals and wrap everything up in modern-day production, Lil Peep was just beginning his career but already creating a movement – and doing so from a laptop in his bedroom.

Lil Peep had released Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 1 three months before he passed, and it was a project that polished his emotive musings and bedroom beats into something more mainstream; a batch of tracks that solidified his standing as future hit-maker and redefined what it meant to be contemporary pop royalty. Thanks to Peep’s mom rescuing demos off his laptop and his best friend and go-to producer Smokeasac taking the reins, Lil Peep’s legacy is able to live on with Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 2, released this month.

Smokeasac and Lil Peep met on SoundCloud when Smoke was a beat-maker living in Virginia and Peep bought one of his first beats. Years later their paths crossed again as they respectively cross-bred the genres of emo and rap. Smokeasac became Peep’s producer on the Come Over When You’re Sober sessions and they never looked back.

Even after Peep’s death, Smokeasac kept looking forward. He had the difficult yet honorable job of finishing the music that the late rapper had started. “I can’t just leave the music behind,” he said. It gave him something to live for. And Peep was still guiding the process – always in Smoke’s head as he attempted to harnesses the essence and integrity of his friend.

The anticipated follow-up that fans never thought they would see dropped on November 9, 2018. COWYS2  is a beautiful tale of modern-day technology meets once-in-a-lifetime friendship as told through Peep’s signature genre-melding, emotionally-charged lyrics. It’s fraught with fragile raw tension and dark themes and according to his mom, “It’s the album that Gus would have wanted.”

Stream COWYS2 on SoundCloud here.