It’s been just over one year since the death of Lil Peep (born Gustav Åhr). His first posthumous album, the new Come Over When You’re Sober Part 2, is the first of three projects that will carry Peep’s legacy onward. Among his friends and collaborators—not to mention the artists he influenced—there’s an exciting new wave of music termed, affectionately, Bop-Punk, coined by Peep's fellow GOTHBOICLIQUE member YAWNS. It’s music that pushes the boundaries of what both rock and rap can be, and historically have been. There’s a distinct freedom of expression in the songs of Peep, but also Lil Tracy, Lil Uzi Vert, Rico Nasty, and others like them; they playfully mix rap influences with passionate and pained pop-punk vocals, layer emo guitar loops over 808s, and lament lyrically about the inevitability of death, followed by boasts about Benz trucks. It’s a true synthesis: a natural marriage of sounds that were always cut from the same cloth of rebellion, black musical traditions, and life on the edges of society. With the world figuratively and literally in flames, it seems only fitting that we’re turning our ears to not just muted expressions of angst and anxiety, but also full-throated screams of anguish. These artists are answering our call.

Despite shared ideas at birth, rap and rock music have always had a bit of a strange history when mashed together. This relationship can be traced in three major movements: classic hip-hop artists of the ’80s sampling rock sounds (shout out to Rick Rubin); the rap/rock explosion of ’90s rock with bands like Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, and Korn; and the early 2010s through present, beginning with Lil Wayne’s 2010 album Rebirth. Rebirth was panned at the time but was commercially successful, with Wayne forgoing much of what had made him a hip-hop legend in favor of poorly executed imitations of dominant rock tropes—heavy guitars and howling vocals most prominent among them. But the album remains incredibly important because of the ways Wayne shifted the narrative around his own persona, and around rap music at large. Of Rebirth, Lil Wayne explained, “I want to say what I want, how I want. That’s what this album is: a freedom album. And rock is the avenue that gives you that freedom.” Eight years later, we’re seeing the natural evolution of the freedom of artistry Lil Wayne was advocating for, with artists forging more natural connections between the two genres.

Following Rebirth, the rise of the melodic autotuned rapper began, with artists like Future (one of Lil Peep’s favorites) and Travis Scott belting pained vocals over dark trap beats. These artists were actively working through their struggles, the trappings of fame, and love under the influence on songs like Future's “Codeine Crazy.” Simultaneously, sad boy icons like Drake were rapidly rising to prominence, and stars of more underground movements like Lil B, Raider Klan, and Yung Lean’s Sadboys were paving the way for an even darker and more fluid type of hip-hop. These more experimental corners of the Internet gave birth to GOTHBOICLIQUE, a music collective founded by (stay with me here) Wicca Phase Springs Eternal and Cold Hart in 2012, and joined later by Horse Head, Fish Narc, Mackned, Lil Tracy, JPDreamthug, YAWNS, Døves, and Lil Peep (the final member in the crew). A quick summary of influences GBC members have referenced ranges from J Dilla to Built to Spill to Gucci Mane to Blink-182 to Soulja Boy to Bright Eyes. Although these may sound disparate, in a world of playlist culture and YouTube mixes, it makes sense that young artists today are blending genres as freely as they would have shuffled through songs on their iPods.

Lil Peep was already making waves on his own before he joined GBC in September of 2016, but that was when he began to truly shine. Drawing upon the deft flows and melodic mastery of Lil Tracy, the songwriting skills of Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, the versatility of Cold Hart, and the angsty vocals of Horse Head, Peep and the rest of GBC went on a blistering run of releases like Hellboy, Castles, This Mess Is My Mess, and STOP TORTURING ME, all of which are fundamental to the development of this new wave. For Lil Peep, this run culminated in the release of Come Over When You’re Sober Part 1, his first studio release. The album peaked at #38 on the Billboard 200 and set off a string of features in mainstream publications (even this one). But then, with only a few days left on tour and his future ahead of him, Lil Peep died of an accidental overdose, just two weeks after his 21st birthday. Since his death, Lil Peep’s mother—along with his producer, Smokeasac—has been guiding the release of his remaining music in collaboration with Columbia Records. Come Over When You’re Sober Part 2 debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 this week, a clear sign that the desire for Lil Peep’s sound is only growing stronger, even in his absence.

The new record contains some truly transcendent and devastating moments. “Leanin’” is a masterwork of genre-blending, pulling together pop-punk guitars, clamoring 808s, seamless flows, and an absolutely crushing refrain: “Woke up surprised / Am I really alive? / I was trying to die last night / I survived suicide last night.” The song somehow manages to pivot from a crushing banger into a tender lamentation on love lost. Other album standouts like “White Girl” and “Sex with My Ex” continue forging ahead, with Peep deftly using all aspects of his voice: cooing, screaming, rapping, singing. It’s a shining example of who Lil Peep was and what he could have been.