The Glorification of Suicide in Hip-Hop Today

Dominic Baglier
Sep 7, 2018 · 4 min read

Lil Uzi Vert scored a #3 song on the Billboard charts last year, his biggest to date, in “Xo Tour Llif3". The song is far more significant than a billboard hit for the 24 year old star though, s a matter of fact, the song’s significance to the entire hip-hop scene is massive. The entire song sounds like a literal cry for help and on the hook of the song Lil Uzi croons :

“I don’t really care if you cry
On the real, you shoulda never lied
Shoulda saw the way she looked me in my eyes
She said, “Baby, I am not afraid to die”
Push me to the edge
All my friends are dead
Push me to the edge
All my friends are dead
Push me to the edge
All my friends are dead
Push me to the edge”

This is one of the bleakest, most pained hip hop hooks in recent memory, let alone on a song which garnered over 250 million views on youtube and landed at number 3 on the billboard charts. This song is so significant because it marks a break into the mainstream for this emo-rap fusion that artists like the late Lil Peep helped to popularize. As enjoyable as the music is — and believe me, Lil uzi and Lil Peep are two of my all time favorite artists — there’s something eerily unsettling about your mom turning on the car radio and Lil Uzi wailing—

“She say I’m insane, yeah
I might blow my brain out (hey)
Xanny, help the pain, yeah
Please, Xanny, make it go away”

— through the car’s speakers. Attending a party where you and 50 other happily intoxicated people are dancing and screaming lyrics which illustrate someone else’s pain and self loathing or their cries for help just feels a little bit off, but is the problem deeper than this? Are artists today marketing and glorifying suicide and mental health issues? Or maybe it’s their labels which push this type of music and profit off of the artists’ pain. Consumers eat up music about suicide because it’s cool not to care and killing oneself is the ultimate proclimation of carelessness. Today’s music is marketing suicide and depression at an all time high — which at surface level is just unsettling — however when we dive deeper into the issue, it is quite obviously problematic.


Lil Peep (above)

2017 was poised to be a breakout year for Gustav Åhr, better known by his stage name Lil Peep. Peep had cultivated a loyal fan base with his melodic cadences, trap influenced instrumentals (many times sampling famous guitar riffs), and lyrics almost always about his death-wish or his struggles with addiction. As expected, 2017 was his breakout year, however it was for all the wrong reasons.

On November 15th, 2017 Gustav was found unresponsive on his tour bus in Arizona. His cause of death was determined to be an accidental fentanyl overdose via xanax pills cut with the potent, deadly substance. As fans mourned many began discussing drug abuse and the pill-popping culture which has sprung up in recent years in the hip-hop scene. As necessary as conversations like this are there is a deeper issue here. Lil Peep never had much except for his music and his drugs, which seemed to be dependent on each other’s existence. The dilemma comes when we give an artist fame, money, and support for music entirely based on suicide and drug addicition. This is such a dangerous game that we play as consumers due to the fact that it creates this paradox where the artist might not have many of the issues that they had previously, however their problems are what made them famous and everybody wants to believe that the music they are listening to is coming from a genuine place — however nobody wants their favorite artist to die.

This is not to say that money solves mental health issues or addicition by any means, but it’s impossible to deny that life changes with the money, fame, and love. It sends a confusing message and makes the work feel disingenuos at times when an artist blows up but continues to talk about struggles which they no longer seem to have. Major labels signing these artists and profiting of their pain is ethically wrong and is creating a culture where depression and suicide are fashionable, diluting the seriousness of the issues.

“Sex sells” is a phrase which has been used over and over again and many would argue that it rings truer today than ever, however I’d argue that sex isn’t selling nearly as well as it used to, and why would it? There is an inexplicable amount of free sex all over the internet. An album cover with a naked woman is not nearly as provocative as it was 10 years ago because sex has been normalized. Suicide sells now, and although some phenomenal music is created, people’s pain is being used for other’s gain, now more than ever.

With artists like Juice Wrld and Trippie Redd on the rise, and Lil Uzi at the top, this movement isn’t going anywhere. There are some positives to this, for example mental health is defnitely becoming less taboo to speak on but you have to think about how diluted real issues become when they are exploited. There is great art being produced in this wave of emo-rap fusion, but beneath that there are artists whose problems are being exploited and there are millions of real people in real pain whose issues are being undermined by this trend of making mental health issues fashionable.

Juice Wrld (Left) and Lil Uzi Vert (Right)

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