It was just under two weeks ago that news broke of the untimely passing of rapper Lil Peep while on a tour bus in Tucson, Arizona.
At the time, the Tucson Police Department revealed that his death was the result of a suspected overdose. This paired with video footage of Lil Peep consuming several Xanax pills prior to his death sparked a conversation on the topic of drug abuse in the music industry, specifically Hip-Hop.
While speculation first arose on social media shortly after the rapper's death, TMZ now reports that Tucson Police are officially looking into the possibility of the Xanax pills that the 21-year old Peep consumed being laced with the substance fentanyl.
In a recent rise in the focus of the opioid epidemic, fentanyl has been identified as a substance so dangerous that just a miniscule portion could prove fatal for a perfectly healthy adult.
"We heard there was some sort of substance he did not expect to be involved in the substance he was taking,” Lil Peep's brother, Oskar, previously expressed in an interview. “He thought he could take what he did, but he had been given something and he didn’t realize what it was.”
"It was an accident, it really was an accident. He was super happy with where he was in life," Oskar went on to add of his younger brother, born Gustav Ahr.
In the same interview the older Ahr went on to add that his brother's publicized drug use was the result of Peep keeping up with a public image—an image that he hopes brings light to the subject of drug use without the burden of tainting his brother's legacy.
“I can guarantee [drugs are] not something that would’ve been a part of his life if he was not a part of that specific culture," he noted. "Not only was he a part of it, he’ll be remembered for making waves in it.”
“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.”