Photo by Sam Balaban
Lil Tracy remains one of the artists most closely associated with the late Lil Peep, although they had a public falling out towards the end of the rapper’s life. As Peep’s posthumous music has rolled out over the past few months, Tracy has been, at times, a vocal critic of the way Columbia Records and Peep’s estate have handled its release. In a new interview with Pitchfork Tracy further elaborated on his relationship with Peep and his view on the rapper’s legacy.
“I felt like certain people are just doing weird shit, using Peep’s name, dating his ex like right after. It hasn’t even been a year. I feel like people are using him for sales, and that shit is just wack,” he said, pointing to the confrontational lyrics on his October track, “Lil Whore”:
I swear to God this shit is sad
They separated me and my friend
That made me mad
Then they had the nerve to go and run off with the swag
They was in Russia
I was in the trap on my ass
He went on to address Quavo’s “BIG BRO” lyrics, which artists like Smokeasac, Fat Nick, and Bexey initially interpreted as a diss aimed at Peep. Quavo eventually clarified that the lyrics, which reference dying from fentanyl-laced Xanax, were about his barber.
“So you niggas look stupid again. Just trying to make everything about themselves. And that shit is wack,” Tracy said. “Like, ‘Oh my God, I fucking miss you. This is so hard for me.’ Like, nigga shut the fuck up! To carry someone’s legacy doesn’t mean to just ride his legacy. Rep him, yes… I feel like people lack the respect and it’s kind of tainting it. I mean you can never taint his legacy. They’re tainting their own legacy.”
Tracy was the only feature on Peep’s debut album, Come Over When You’re Sober Pt. 1, but he didn’t end up appearing on the sequel. He told Pitchfork that he’s not upset about being excluded from the album—which he has yet to listen to—due to their up and down relationship, but said that he wasn’t satisfied with how things were handled overall.
“Who really knows what he would’ve wanted,” Tracy said. “We weren’t even friends [at the end of his life], so who’s to say that he would’ve put me on it, you know what I’m saying? I wasn’t gonna like push to get on it. But yeah, they put [XXXTentacion] on there, but they didn’t put Lil Tracy on that. That’s no disrespect to X, I actually fucked with X. It’s just like ‘Two dead niggas, let’s put them on a track, this will sell.’”
He’s referencing the song “Falling Down,” which was released as the first song from Come Over When You’re Sober Pt. 2 and eventually included as a bonus track on the album. The nature of Peep and X’s relationship during Peep’s life remains unclear, and artists like Tracy and Fish Narc, who were early Peep collaborators, voiced displeasure about the song. Smokeasac and Makonnen, however, have said that Peep would have been happy with the release.
“I feel like his management was just on some dick shit,” Tracy concluded. “They never hit me up. I’m like, ‘Damn, what did I do wrong?'”
Check out Lil Tracy’s full Pitchfork interview here and catch up on all the lyrics to Lil Peep’s Come Over When You’re Sober Pt. 2 on Genius now.
