Since Lil Peep’s death in 2017, the rapper’s mother, Liza Womack, has pushed tirelessly to honor his music. Womack and a team of producers have released several posthumous projects by Lil Peep, as well as the documentary Everybody’s Everything. Now, to celebrate its fourth anniversary, Lil Peep’s 2016 mixtape Crybaby is available on streaming services for the first time.
The mixtape was remastered by Joe LaPorta, who worked on the rapper’s posthumous Everybody’s Everything, Vertigo, and Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 2. While LaPorta lent a hand on Crybaby, Womack told Pitchfork that the mixtape was only “slightly” mastered but otherwise is “totally untouched.” “So it’s the same thing that he made, and that matters to me…. I’m very proud of that,” Womack said.
While Crybaby is seeing its first digital release four years later, Womack has worked incessantly to clear the array of samples Lil Peep used. The rapper pulled from Oasis’ “Wonderwall” for his track “Yesterday” and the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” for “White Tee.” The only sample Womack wasn’t able to clear was Radiohead’s OK Computer song “Climbing Up the Walls,” which appeared on Lil Peep’s “Falling 4 Me.” But Womack says she plans on leaving a black space on any future vinyl pressings in the track’s honor.
Speaking further to Pitchfork about Lil Peep’s mixtape, Womack said Crybaby was a highly prolific era for the young rapper:
“I think he was really kind of hitting his stride. This is the first time he was working with producers live, human, physically. So that was a turning point where he actually met his producers in person. I think an important thing about this mixtape was that he was feeling a sense of power, as somebody who had positive social feedback for his work. He had a group of people to work with, and there were all these people doing videos and writing music and producing music, and all this intense creativity. That must have been very nice for him.”
Crybaby is out now via Lil Peep/AUTNMY. Get it here.