The mother of rapper Lil Peep has filed a lawsuit against his management company over negligence related to his death from an overdose in 2017.

According to court documents obtained by the New York Times, Liza Womack has claimed that First Access Entertainment, the agency and label that oversaw her son’s career, plied and propped him up with illegal drugs.

The suit claims the company “fostered, promoted and encouraged” drug use in order to control the rising star while he was on tour.

“This is something that I must do as a mother,” Womack said to the New York Times. “What Gus had to live through is actually horrifying to me, and I’m sure he’s not the only person his age in this situation.”

First Access Entertainment have said the lawsuit is “groundless and offensive” and said any claim that its employees had a role in his death is “categorically untrue. In fact, we consistently encouraged Peep to stop abusing drugs and to distance himself from the negative influence of the drug users and enablers with whom he chose to associate.”

Lil Peep, whose real name was Gustav Åhr, was signed to the label at the age of 19. He achieved mainstream success with the album Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 1. He died aged 21 after being found unresponsive on a tour bus in Arizona. The suit claims that he was pushed “to the extreme bounds of what somebody of his age and maturity level could handle emotionally, mentally, and physically”.

Named in the suit are British First Access Entertainment chief executive Sarah Stennett, who has worked with singers including Rita Ora and Zayn Malik, and Belinda Mercer, who was the manager on the rapper’s final tour. The suit alleged that Stennett would gift him with bottles of pills, citing text messages where she would offer Xanax. Mercer, who was allegedly in a sexual relationship with Åhr, would also provide him with drugs, including ketamine. According to Variety, the lawsuit alleges that the night before his death Mercer “begged the local tour staff for heavy drugs”.

Similar claims were originally made in a Rolling Stone article earlier this year and Stennett spoke about her view of his drug-taking. “I said, ‘Look, I’m not here to chastise you for taking drugs – that’s not my job. What I can tell you is it’s very hard to reach your potential if you’re a drug user,’” she said. She also denied giving him any form of drug.

When speaking of Åhr’s death, Womack’s lawyer Paul A Matiasic has said: “We acknowledge, obviously, that Gus had a role” but that “in evaluating the legal responsibility for someone’s untimely death, it is not a binary decision”. He said that First Access “had the power, they had the influence and control over Gus’s career, and specifically this tour” and that “there are duties associated with having that type of control”.

The suit is seeking unspecified damages for negligence, breach of contract and wrongful death. Representatives for Stennett and First Access Entertainment have yet to respond to requests for comment.