Late Rapper Lil Peep Remembered by Friends and Family During Emotional Memorial

21-year-old rapper's memorial is live-streamed from Long Beach, Calif.

By Meg Swertlow Dec 03, 2017 10:45 PMTags

Rapper Lil Peep may be gone, but he's not forgotten.

The 21-year-old, whose birth name was Gustav Åhr, was remembered by friends and family at an emotional memorial in his hometown of Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday.

According to a post to fans on his Instagram, the event, which was live streamed, was intended to celebrate "the fascinating and colorful life" of the late music man, who also modeled.

Gus died on Nov. 15 of an apparent drug overdose. He was set to perform at a nightclub in Tucson when when his manager found him unresponsive in his tour bus, Sergeant Pete Dugan confirmed to E! News at the time.

The rapper was given medical attention, but could not be revived. Drug paraphernalia was found on the bus and detectives found evidence of a drug overdose, but no sign of foul play, per Dugan. An investigation is currently in progress.

During the service, various people including Gus' grandmother and mother, Liza Womack, spoke.

Womack talked about his son's intense desire to buck the system and reject conformity.

She said, "He hurt terribly when his friends said he was no longer welcome in their homes. Once he had stopped performing well in school and had stopped playing sports."

She continued, "Long before that though, Gus understood that many good people suffered injustice because of what they looked like or how much money they had."

"He saw how the cool kids who lived in the fancy neighborhoods looked down on his friends — and looked down on his own family who lived in an apartment and drove an old Nissan. Gus got fed up with that world. He rejected it and he rejected being molded into a box," the grieving mother added. "[And] when he locked himself in the garage and got his first tattoo, he began to make his rejection of the box public."

After his death, Sarah Stennett, the chief executive of First Access Entertainment, a company that partnered with Peep in 2016, said in a statement to E! News, "I am shocked and heartbroken.  I do not believe Peep wanted to die, this is so tragic. He had big goals and dreams for the future which he had shared with me, his team, his family and his friends.  He was highly intelligent, hugely creative, massively charismatic, gentle and charming. He had huge ambition and his career was flourishing."

In August, Lil Peep released his first and only studio album, Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1.

His untimely death has drawn emotional reactions from his admirers, among them Pete Wentz, Post Malone and ex-girlfriend Bella Thorne, whom he was spotted kissing in September.

"F--k I don't know what to say," she tweeted upon hearing the sad news. "Peep you deserved more out of life. Life didn't do your greatness justice."

In an Instagram video, Thorne elaborated, "Anybody out there who is a Lil Peep fan, you guys know how talented he was. You guys know how great he was. Well, he was even more f--king great as a person."

RIP, Gus.