With the casual charisma of a born star and shamelessly catchy music that combined emo melodies and hip-hop beats, rapper Lil Peep was on his way to becoming a key voice of his generation – until he died of an overdose in 2017, just after his 21st birthday. On the new episode of our podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, David Peisner, who wrote Rolling Stone‘s recent in-depth posthumous feature on Peep’s life, career and death, joined music editor Christian Hoard and host Brian Hiatt to dig deep into Lil Peep’s story. What aspects of his life and death were an all-too typical rock narrative, and what was unique to the era of SoundCloud and Instagram? Are the frequent Kurt Cobain comparisons surrounding Peep — some made by the artist himself — justified? And what, if anything, can be done to prevent further music tragedies?
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Download and subscribe to our weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on iTunes or Spotify, and check out two years worth of episodes in the archive, including in-depth interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Ice Cube, Neil Young, the National, Julian Casablancas, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Donald Fagen, Phil Collins, Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson, Pete Townshend, Bob Seger, Gary Clark Jr. and many more — plus dozens of episodes featuring genre-spanning discussions and debates. Tune in Fridays at 1 p.m. ET to hear the show broadcast live on Sirius XM’s Volume, channel 106.