By Andrew Hayes, The Drop editor 

Lil Peep’s posthumous album “Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 2” was released on Nov. 9 and focuses on grasping the life of a young pop star and introverted adult.  

Known outside of the hip-hop world as Gustav Elijah Ahr, Ahr tragically passed away on tour Nov. 15 2017, exactly three months after the release of his album “Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 1.” He passed from an accidental overdose of fentanyl and generic Xanax, a cause of death becoming all too common in the music world, involving artist such as Prince, Tom Petty and Mac Miller. Gus was only 21 years old.  

In “Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 2”, Ahr sings, and raps, mashing pop punk, emo, and trap together. You can hear this in the song “Run Away” sounded by whiny-grunge like vocals and guitar samples, supported by heavy bass, snares and hi-hats.   

Lyrically, this song speaks upon struggles of introversion and drug abuse. Ahr says, “Everybody act like they care / I was dying and nobody was there / Please don’t cry, baby, life ain’t fair.” Ahr often felt like a ghost and that he would not last long, but was aware that the art he created on earth would impact people, by helping us consider others emotions.  

Ahr further identifies the relations between his poor relationship management and use of hard drugs and alcohol in songs like “Hate Me” and “Broken Smile (My All).” In “Hate Me” Ahr says, “When I’m on my own, I’ll be sipping Patron, trying to blame you”, and in “Broken Smile (My All),” he says, “She was the one that was worth my time / Now that she gone, I know that I’m wrong.” Both songs validating Ahr was aware he should seek help and not come back over to his partners house until he is sober.   

Ahr also strongly exposes his introversion through hurtful lyrics towards people who made him not feel welcome simply for his appearance and financial gains. In “Cry Alone,” Ahr sings, “I hate everybody in my hometown / Tell the rich kids to look at me now,” expressing hate. Where in the song “Hate Me” Ahr exposes uncertainty in hate in the lyrics, “No I don’t wanna let you down / No, I just wanna leave this town / Sometimes I feel like everyone hates me.” As he could tell hate was not the answer, he just wanted change and acceptance.  

Ahr’s most lyrically powerful song on the album is “Life Is Beautiful,” a song that focuses on how life can give us a bad hand of cards, causing us suffering and death. Ahr speaks upon situations from working an office job every day that one despises to police brutality and terminal illness. As Ahr knows the undesired factor of death in life and such situations are not beautiful, it’s a part of our existence and our existence is beautiful. You can hear it in the line, “And if you ever need a friend then you got me.” Hoping that his music could serve as therapy or happiness to people in dark places.  

As the album heavily focuses on the themes of poor relationship management, introversion, and drug abuse, the album ends at the song “Fingers.” “Fingers” is a song composed of just a verse and hook where Ahr Asks his ex-girlfriend how doesn’t she hate him after all he has put her through, creating a visual of him running his fingers through her hair while asking her this question. Ahr brought a witty style of soft and sharp emotional lyrics that I would call rose romanticism. He closes the song singing with acceptance, “We gotta move on.” This made the album feel complete, in regards to that Ahr was indeed trying to evolve into a young yet important adult pop star.