According to Lil Peep's brother, the 21-year old rapper's untimely death was nothing but a pure accident. Shortly after Lil Peep passed away due to what seems to be a drug overdose, the rapper's older brother, Karl Åhr, known as Oskar, spoke to People Magazine in an effort to shine a light on his younger brother's legacy beyond the press surrounding his drug use.
“We [the family] have heard there was some sort of substance he did not expect to be involved in the substance he was taking,” Oskar told the publication. “He thought he could take what he did, but he had been given something and he didn’t realize what it was.”
According to Oskar, Lil Peep, born Gustav Åhr, was actually mentally sound in contrast to the reports of depression and mental illness attached to his use of drugs such as Xanax, of which he allegedly took five to six at the time of his death.
Oskar explains that Lil Peep's image as a drug addict and "emo" rapper was all a front to sell music, and that he was a much happier person than most people got to see. "It was an accident, it really was an accident,” Oskar says. “He was super happy with where he was in life...He gets paid to be sad. It’s what he made his name on. It’s what his image was in a sense.”
"He was so proud when he heard that there were people in the world who wanted to kill themselves, and then they didn’t because they listened to his music. He was helping people, he was not somebody who needed help,” Oskar continues. “He was not as sad as people think he was. It’s frustrating as someone who remembers a happy brother.”
In the conversation, Oskar goes on to explain that Lil Peep's drug use wasn't as amplified when he was younger and that it increased as he became a more prominent figure in the rap scene.
“My brother didn’t take five Xanax pills every day, but he would take them and then post on Instagram about it,” he went on to add. “I wish it would have paid for him to be a little safer, but the world needed him to have superlative problems that he dealt with in superlative ways. Gus dealt with these problems much better than Lil Peep did, but people didn’t know Gus, and there’s a reason Gus doesn’t sell."
“I hope there is some focus on drugs like Xanax and pills, in general, and the potential for them being laced, but I hope it isn’t too much associated with how people remember him.”