Photo by Adam Degross

The sudden death of Lil Peep triggered an outpouring of support for the late 21-year-old superstar, including condolences from public figures & major publications that previously showed no interest in covering his budding career.

Before Peep’s death on November 15th, New York-based media giant Complex had published TWO pieces of content highlighting the “emo rapper,” the first of which was a 15-sentence piece filled with copy-and-paste quotes from a press release highlighting the release of his recent album ‘Come Over When You’re Sober.’ The second piece of coverage was another half-assed, nine-sentence summary included in a piece titled “The Who’s Who of SoundCloud Rap,” published on August 30th, 2017.

Interestingly enough, in the seven days since Lil Peep’s passing, Complex has published a whopping SEVEN written pieces and NINE video clips using his name in the headline (see photo below). Ranging from a piece titled “New Details Emerge In Lil Peep’s Death” to a video compilation called “Lil Peep’s Legacy,” the surface-level coverage of his tragic death has generated thousands of clicks and views for an outlet that clearly had zero interest in Peep’s career before he became a trending topic.

Chasing clicks and traffic is part of the game; but it’s an entirely different conversation when an outlet literally triples their amount of coverage due to a rise in popularity caused by death.

I understand that Peep’s death was a topic of conversation and deserved media coverage; which is why breaking news/tribute pieces from major publications made sense. But when that coverage turns into a frenzy of clickbait headlines and misleading titles, something needs to be said.

Complex: stop feasting on the death of an artist you weren’t showing love to in the first place & let Lil Peep rest in fucking peace.