Review: Lil Peep & Nedarb’s “California Girls”
The deceased rappers 3rd posthumous outing does nothing to elevate his legacy within emo rap
Gustav Elijah Åhr or Lil Peep was a trailblazer in the world of emo rap, his album Come Over When You’re Sober established both his and the subgenre’s influence on hip hop and pop culture at large. After years of dwelling in the underground and SoundCloud scene and making his name with GothBoiClique and his own string of mixtape releases. By the time he died of a deadly combination of fentanyl and Xanax he was poised to be one of the most watched artists across the country. His style was marked by emotional raps and dreamy lo-fi soundscapes and he was frequently compared alongside the growing trap metal scene.
I’ve personally never been a big Lil Peep fan, when I finally listened to his debut album from 2017 I wasn’t impressed with the low energy flows or the lyrics because all of them just seemed insincere to me. It wasn’t my cup of tea and while I agree with a lot of Lil Peep’s personal politics like his consistent fights with homophobes over the internet and work with gay rap artists none of that ever reflected in his music. Even if it did I don’t think it would have improved my opinion of him as a rapper, just because we agree on the same issues doesn’t mean I’m going to like your music. Having said that I do think the loss of human life is tragic especially at such a young age and while having an impact on his fans.
His most recently released outings, with collaborator Nedarb, is the California Girls EP which was originally recording in 2016 and widely released this year after five years of being kept between them. With this release I honestly can’t help but feel it serves no purpose in keeping Lil Peep’s legacy. There was a reason this never saw the light of day, maybe lack of interest in the project and now to release it five years later after he may have moved on and tried to enhance his skills above this content just seems like major step backwards.
Lil Peep’s rapping on the song ranges from doing drugs and fucking girls. That’s it. I can’t say he really tried to elevate his rapping above that in later years but on this EP the boastfulness is in full effect. His raps to me on this one show the dangers of how toxic severe codependency can be, I can picture his relationships with women being similar to that of a caretaker and a chimpanzee. The girl looks after him to make sure he’s not getting too fucked up and killing himself and he’s draining her of all her money and energy that she has left in her.
In the song “pray i die” particularly Peep’s lyrics seem to delve into a failed relationship and his emotionally abusive statements. “I ain’t tryin’ to live, pray, I die, But I keep comin’ right up out of the mud/ What you call a sin I call a part of my day/ Get the fuck out my way, say she gon’ fuck but she gay” is particularly grating to listen to. It just sounds like a sadboi ex boyfriend telling you he’s gonna kill himself if you don’t get back with him. It’s lyricism like this that always drove me away from his character.
None of the production on the album really stands out to me either it just makes use of a lot of glitchy sounds and synths with the beats carrying them, or I should say dragging, the songs across the 22 minute long EP. The whole thing starts and ends with barely a breath of life in either the rapper or the production. The only one who sounded alive on this album was Craig Xen and it was not by a huge margin, it was more so that hearing a different voice was slightly more pleasing to the ears.
There’s plenty of other lyrical moments that elicit eyerolls from the listener like on “california world” where Gustav makes the case that he wants to make a stain on this poor girls Louis Vitton. Another one was on “beamer boy” where Peep raps the line “Okay, I pull my cash out, shawty pass out/ Take her ass out, then I spaz out/ Okay, yeah, I hit that, shawty, get back/ I got death notes, where my list at.” Which just elicited a couple audible groans from me.
Overall this EP just stands as fan service, something that Lil Peep stans can drool over and vibe to while nodding off in their bedrooms. Never really taking on any of what’s actually being presented to them, they’re more or less just vibing to the lifeless music and not doing anything productive. There’s no fun on these kinds of records at all, sure depressing lyricism can be insightful and meaningful but on a Lil Peep track you’ll find more meaning in a trash barrel than here.
