Everybody's Everything - Lil Peep: Review
was a New York based rapper and singer who blew up in the mid 2010's with a dramatic crossover sound between 2000's emo and contemporary trap. He transcended SoundCloud status and was gaining in popularity when he passed away just over two years ago from an overdose before a concert. Last year the second part of his Come Over When You're Sober album was released posthumously and Everybody's Everything is a collection of tracks that we're finished and assembled by producers and artists that Peep worked with during his lifetime.
Review By Lavender:
I won't pretend to amend history, while I was always an admirer of Lil Peep as a person I was never an avid fan of his music, and that lasted from when I first heard his SoundCloud tapes until his posthumous record last year. Despite this he was pioneering a sound that a lot of people clearly related to, and he has been an influence on many artists within the genre that I have enjoyed since it exploded a few years ago. I was afraid that this record would fall in line with so many other posthumous records of its kind, as a cheap cash grab using any unfinished material the label could find from an artist. Thankfully Everybody's Everything appears to be a very genuine attempt at following up the vision that Peep had for his music, the unfortunate part is that the quality of the songs here vary strongly on who is attached to the finished product.
The first portion of the record doesn't get off to a very strong start, Liar is the opening track that is a pretty typical emo trap affair but one that is performed well and pretty catchy. The next two tracks are much more rough, Aquafina has a really almost painfully slow pace that obliterates any chance at vocal or lyrical charisma that track could have had with a better foundation. Ratchets is a near totally brainless cut with a completely obnoxious hook and not much substance of any kind in the instrumental or lyrics, when Lil Tracy is the highlight of your song you know it is rough.
The next series of songs comes in a trilogy of three straight features from an artist called Gab3, who routinely ruins decent tracks. Fangirl has a pretty great Peep hook that I quite enjoy but the verses really are a nightmare and make it impossible to really appreciate it at all. LA To London has the same problem but I don't really even like the hook that much in the first place. The only song that survives Gab3 and is still tolerable is Rockstarz which has an absolutely killer hook from Peep and is the only track of the three that I like as it is.
The middle section of this record is by far the best series of tracks with only one exception, and almost all of the highlights come here. Text Me is a decent song, the only flaw of which I think is that guest vocalist has his vocals pitched way down which is a shame because it could have sounded better than this given the rest of the song and it seems like a strange decision. Princess is a track I liked from the moment I first heard it which comes off as a legitimately sweet approach to a drugged out love song that I was surprised to enjoy as much as I did. Belgium was one of the songs that was on the EP which proceeded this record and I think it is still pretty decent here, if not outclassed right after by one of my favorite songs on the entire record. The next track is a really good one When I Lie, the track is one of the catchiest of the bunch and contains some of the best lyrics I just see it as the all around best track of the set. And finally I've Been Waiting gets a pretty big improvement when you remove Fall Out Boy and turns into a song I can actually like and tolerate on this record.
The only song in this portion that really sucks is Moving On where there is just no semblance of flow or alignment with the best for the bars that are being delivered. This sets the stage for the rest of the record which is really the only point where I feel we may have crossed over into the disrespectful territory by releasing stuff that may have never been intended to see the light of day. Live Forever and Ghost Boy are two tracks that would need to be sped up numerous times over in order to be interesting and just have no business being on something that is a proposed studio album. Keep My Coo is a track that made me cringe quite a bit, Peep comes off trying to sound like a badass and it just doesn't work at all, but it is so obvious that it doesn't work that I think this one really shouldn't have been released and it has no business being out here like this.
The real disrespect comes on the final selection of tracks where we have to face a problem head on. Lil Tracy is so consistently awful that he shouldn't have been allowed to be near any tracks of Peep's that we're released posthumously. I did read somewhere that some of these songs have had official or unofficial releases for a while and I hope that is the case with these because he turns good tracks bad and mediocre tracks into complete disasters. The worst trilogy of songs by far on this record comes when Lil Tracy jumps on every song in the last run of tracks. White Tee samples Such Great Heights by The Postal Service, but that is where the good parts stop as Tracy and Peep drop some loose and totally aimless bars over it to no avail. Cobain is a song I remember from Peep's Hellboy tape and finally including it on streaming services is a fun novelty for fans but they decided to keep Lil Tracy on it to give one of the worst performances I've ever heard and turn the song into a complete waste. witchblades has another decent Peep performance completely undone by the utterly unbearable Lil Tracy passages that surround it. Finally Walk Away As The Door Slams is an acoustic version of another track from Hellboy that I actually think is an improvement and a pretty decent closer to the record both emotionally and thematically, despite what I believe is another bad Tracy performance.
Everybody's Everything has some of Peep's most memorable moments on it, setting it apart from the sea of other records released after artists had passed, but the collaborations wear thin long before the records nearly hour long runtime. If Gab3 doesn't finish the job of ruining as many tracks as he can Lil Tracy comes in to do more than his fair share of completely abusing listeners with his lyrics and rapping. Given that Peep obviously didn't contribute as much to this record as some others did it is hard to judge its artistic intent, but as far as the actual music we have here it's just a very hit or miss collection of half songs that Lil Tracy shouldn't have been let anywhere near. 4/10
