This isn’t an interview and this most definitely isn’t about an underground artist. I haven’t done an interview in quite some time and wanted to do a music review/analysis for a while. This was a fun write-up and I mean no disrespect with my interpretations and opinions.

LiL Peep, the oppressed, tattoo’d, cocaine-loving singer from Long Beach, NY. (Whether Gus was as his music persona portrayed is up for debate; I am writing about what he put out into the world as the lovesick, stressed out punk and absolute baller he portrayed himself to be.)

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While I don’t want to turn this into a memoir on the goth super star (there’s already so many, and I can’t hold myself to their standards), it is important to say that Peep was a young, tortured soul who so desperately desired love. Today I’m going to attempt to go in-depth into his best love songs. Peep had a unique take on romance and it’s fair to say most of his songs are written about love, girls, drugs or all of them combined.

Hair Dye (Dead)

Originally posted on his collective GothBoiClique’s Soundcloud, titled Dead, it was quickly removed and later uploaded as Hair Dye. (I thought I was clever having this knowledge due to being a long time fan, but it’s literally on Genius. F*ck me, right?)

Peep belts out his broken heart over a The Cranberries sample with 2016 emo-trap production by Horse Head and Ledderick. (This Mess is My Mess by Horse Head is my 2nd rated Emo Trap album of all time!) The hook is sexy, the vocals are abrasive with the layering and almost hoarse sounding reverb, and floats over the drums.

[Hook]

She makes the boys stare at her legs

It’s not that I don’t care, I swear you’re all in my head

Playing with your hair, laying in my bed

I got some drugs on the nightstand, I feel dead

We get to the post-hook where it seemingly relates to the last line of the first hook. I got some drugs on the nightstand, I feel dead – he asks his love to pray for him and wait on him. He feels dead often and copes with the drugs, leaving them right on the nightstand, ready to take them at anytime.

[Post-Hook]

I know you’re praying for me

I hope you waitin’ for me too

I know you’re praying for me

I hope you waitin’ for me

Now it’s time to analyze the only verse on the song. Peep screams to his love that he is a mess and that life is no fair. He sings that if she were to drive by his house again, to please stop inside and give him a kiss. He begins to shout out about all of the hair colors she used to have, and that he can never forget.

[Verse]

Baby, it’s no fair, girl, I’m a mess

If you drive by, I want you to stop there and give me a kiss

I remember your blonde hair

I remember your black hair

I remember your red hair from last fall

I can’t forget about anything at all

To reiterate, it seems Peep knows he is a drug addict, that he’s a disaster to himself and his love, but he still wants her and that he can never forget what they had. He knows he drove them away, which is why he says, “If you drive by, I want you to stop there and give me a kiss,” meaning if she ever rotates back into his life, they are welcome back in his life always, and that he desires them.

2. Horse Head – Kiss Me (ft. LiL Peep)

Is it cheating to include a Peep feature on this list? Probably. Could I even do my one job right? Absolutely not. God, I love Horse Head. But let’s get into it. Produced by Ledderick and Smokeasac. I doubt there are any samples on this song. It sounds like a classic Smokeasac guitar loop. The mixing on this song, is, love to everyone involved on this track, horrible. The bass constantly clips, the vocals sounds like they were recorded in the center of a ballroom, and an obligatory third thing to complain about. I’m grateful for the music, and, the raw mixing makes the track feel like it’s own world.

[Hook: Horse Head]

She’s too busy ravin’

She don’t really care about fashion

I don’t think that she can save me

But her eyes burn red with a passion

Like what’s the question that you’re asking?

My heart was beating so loud

I would be like so down, baby, if you kissed me

And if I left town, would you miss me?

It sounds like Horse Head has a little crush. She is too busy partying, doesn’t care about fashion like most party girls do, (probably something that Horse Head admires?) and thinks she can’t focus on him enough to save his life. Possibly an exaggeration, maybe more so saying that she can’t pay attention to his mental health. However, she does care about them, due to the line, But her eyes burn red with a passion. He asks since she can’t even pay mind to him, if he up and left, would she even care?

[Verse 1: Horse Head]

I would stay so down, for you

Head underwater I would drown, for you

And I would stick around, for you

Give it all up right now, for you

I would stay so down, for you

Head underwater I would drown, for you

And I would stick around, for you

Give it all up right now, for you

Horse Head explains how he would do anything for this girl. Giving up his life, killing himself to prove his love, sticking by her through thick and thin. He’s betting it all on her.

[Verse 2: Lil Peep]

You can call me Horse Head cause I’m so down

She ever really wanna do is go down on me

All she wanna do is leave town with me

All I wanna do is make you cry, for me

Tell me right now will you die for me?

Girl, please don’t lie to me

Tell me right now will you die for me?

Girl, please don’t lie to me

Peep’s girl is different. She wants to constantly be with him, have sex with him, etc. But Peep’s problem is different. He simply doesn’t believe her. He’s begging her to always be honest with him. He’s asking her if she would die for him. He wants to make her cry for him, he wants to see that she cares.

The contrast between Peep and Horse Head’s heartache is so different and spectacular. This duo was meant to be.

3. Worlds Away

Why is this song called Worlds Away if he says ‘A World Away’ every single time? I want to ask Horse Head, but he probably has no idea. With a Bright Eyes guitar sample, Horse Head puts his drum programming and production abilities to work.

[Verse]

Feels like we’re a world away

But we in the same room, be my girl, today at least

She don’t even know my name

But she look me in the eyes like she know my pain, that’s me

And she always let me be myself, she don’t ever take bread

She don’t need no help, that’s real

While I’m busy tryna to get my wealth

She ain’t worry about a thing except my dick and my health, that’s real

Staring at a girl from across the room, he senses that she can read into him. She doesn’t even know his name but she sees the pain in his eyes. Halfway through the verse, it cuts to them being together. She never wants to accept his money. She doesn’t take handouts and she isn’t a gold digger, she, in his words, is real. She just worries about his health, physically and mentally, (depression, drugs) and his, well, his penis.

[Chorus]

She sees the things that you don’t see

She breathes the air that you don’t breathe

She bleeds the blood that you don’t bleed

She looks at me like she loves me

She sees the things that you don’t see

She breathes the air that you don’t breathe

She bleeds the blood that you don’t bleed

She looks at me like she loves me

Peep goes on about how this girl is different from any other. She sees things in a refreshing perspective, she views the world differently and she looks at him with love in his eyes.

LiL Peep doesn’t have many love songs that aren’t depressing, but this is one of them. It makes you feel good. It almost gives you a crush on the girl as well.

4. Your Eyes

[Hook: LiL Peep]

Lately i’ve been flexing hard on my ex

Baby i’ve been leaning hard in this tech

I can see the scars on your neck

And i can see the stars in your eyes

Right now you’re the only thing on my mind

Got me rolling, sipping, smoking dope just to get me high

Baby i’ve been trying hard to get by

Baby girl trying hard just to get fly for me

Peep has been showing his new lifestyle of rockstar fame off to impress his ex-girlfriend. He’s been riding in sports cars, taking drugs, trying to get away from his old problems, and focuses on a new girl. He thinks she tries too hard to impress him, and he can see all of the pain inside she expresses, and outwards.

[Verse 1: LiL Peep]

She would die for me, ride for me

Spend a night with me, don’t fight with me

She in the Beamer with me, two seater with me

Say she love me cause i know thats what she needed from me

My bitch bleeding for me, she never cheated on me

She wanna fuck with me forever when she fucking on me

Come and fuck with me, baby, I ain’t fucking for free

Come and fuck with me, baby, come and fuck with a G

This girl would die for him. She doesn’t fight him, she follows him everywhere, gives him sex and knows that his love he gives her is all she needs. This is the exact kind of love Peep desires on Kiss Me, the song he appears on with Horse Head.

This seems to be, along with Worlds Away, a song about true love, and not toxic love. This song has beautifully auto-tuned vocals and an elegantly reverb’d acoustic guitar. S/O Ledderick!

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In conclusion, I believe these to be Peeps’ Top 4 love songs. (At least for what is of his discography right now!) The production by Ledderick, Horse Head, and Smokeasac is exactly what you would expect from the genre they helped create. 2016 was an amazing year for this genre.

All of the songs can be found on this private playlist I made here.