Also, skateboarders did not have coaches and parents to boss them around. But all you needed to be good at skateboarding, and therefore part of that group, was one skateboard. Sports-the equipment, membership/dues for travel teams, etc.-were expensive. And the fact was surfboards, lessons, and everything else that went with it was expensive. The other “culture” in Long Beach, aside from “surfer culture” and “hockey/lacrosse/sports-in-general culture” was skateboard culture. It offered all manner of surf “wear”-from rash guards to snazzy bathing suits to board wax to wrap-around sunglasses. It provided a place for people to buy surf boards and surfboard paraphernalia. Long Beach Surf Shop served several purposes to Long Beach locals. Gus stopped by, on his own, or with friends-sometimes. The place was right in the middle of town, there was only one main drag where all the stores were. Gus regularly visited a local business called Long Beach Surf Shop. One of the first observable instances of Gus’s keen fascination with shoes was the moment he commented on his grandmother’s black Converse All-Stars. He began to show an interest in “cool shoes” around fourth or fifth grade. “He saw how the cool kids who lived in the fancy neighborhoods looked down on his friends who lived in the projects – and looked down on his own family who lived in an apartment and drove an old Nissan. “Gus understood that many good people suffered injustice because of what they looked like or how much money they had,” she said. Womack also remembered her son as someone who reckoned with multiple forms of societal prejudice. “His favorite song to sing was ‘Fly Me to the Moon,’ and he was fucking good at singing it.” When Lil Peep tracks like “Star Shopping” or “Save That Shit” played during the service, friends in the audience thew their arms around each other’s shoulders, swayed and sang every word. “You may be surprised to find out that Gus and his housemates had a weekly Frank Sinatra night,” she continued. His mother, Liza Womack, said he often labored through the night, working on music until after the sun rose again next morning. Lil Peep’s rise to stardom was powered by relentless drive. He released music primarily via streaming services like Bandcamp and Soundcloud, and he currently has some four dozen songs on SoundCloud with more than a million streams each. Peep delivered hummable melodies with conversational ease, and his songs included frank discussions of suicidal thoughts, heartache and drug use. Over the last two years, Lil Peep’s music blended rap and rock, often coupling a tremulous guitar line, untouched by distortion or drama, with jaw-rattling bass and hi-hats. Others wore some form of pink – Åhr’s favorite color. Some wore black Come Over When You’re Sober sweatshirts in honor of Lil Peep’s final recording, hoods up in solidarity. The hundreds of fans lined up to pay their respects outside the beachside Allegria Hotel were overwhelmingly young. Lil Peep, born Gustav Åhr, died on the evening of November 15th at age 21 of a suspected drug overdose. One 19-year-old fan named Tim explains why he got a tattoo honoring the singer-rapper on his lower left rib cage. “I have pretty bad anxiety and depression,” he told Rolling Stone. “When that got really bad with a relationship I was in, Lil Peep was my outlet … Like, someone else has been through the same thing.” On a clear December afternoon, friends, family and fans gathered to honor the late Lil Peep in Long Beach, New York.
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