Lil Peep’s mother sues late rapper’s management team for wrongful death

The mother of late rapper Lil Peep is suing the artist’s former management and tour company nearly two years after his death. 

According to TMZ, Liza Womack, Peep’s mother, filed a lawsuit on Monday against First Access Entertainment, the company that was responsible for the rapper’s last tour prior to his death. 

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The lawsuit also names several people who were part of his management team. She’s seeking unspecified damages for negligence, breach of contract and wrongful death, according to the New York Times. In the lawsuit, she named Sarah Stennett, First Access’s chief executive and a music industry power broker. She also named Bryant Ortega and Belinda Mercer, who were Peep’s former managers.

The paperwork claims that beginning in 2017, her son was allowed and even encouraged by management to take drugs during his the Peep Show tour. She claims that during a stop in London, Lil Peep was gifted pills by one of his managers at a dinner. She goes on to talk about how later in 2017, he was “regularly supplied with Xanax, Ketamine and other drugs while on the road,” TMZ reports.

His mother also claims Peep was in a “comatose-like state” during that tour’s final stop in Los Angeles in May 2017. He was reportedly “barely able to communicate, let alone perform, due to his use of drugs.”

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In a report earlier this year, Rolling Stone recounted the rapper’s final days in 2017 where the same May show in Los Angeles was referenced. Gothboiclique member Fish Narc’s account of the show is much like Womack’s. Rolling Stone writes that Fish Narc stated the late rapper was “slumped, vomiting, nodding off and stammering about having taken an ‘oxy.’”

Ortega and Stennett, who are both named in Womack’s filing, reportedly attempted to cancel the LA show, with Ortega explaining their exchange to Rolling Stone.

“I called Sarah and said, ‘Maybe I’ll just call the fire department. We can make a play that it’s a capacity thing so we’re protecting Peep’s reputation and not saying, ‘He’s overdosing.’”

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After discussing it with Stennett, she agreed it should be canceled, but Peep reportedly persisted. “I went to Peep,” Ortega says, “and he was adamant: ‘No, I can do it.’”

However, in the lawsuit, Womack claims management pushed him to do the tour when he wanted to quit because he was “physically and emotionally drained.” The suit states they “pushed [Lil Peep] onto stage after stage in city after city.”

In El Paso, Texas—at what would be the rapper’s final show prior to his death—his mother claims one of his managers told him to take “an excessive amount of Xanax.” The suggestion was allegedly made so he would get sick and they could cancel the show without any repercussions. The manager was Mercer, who Peep’s mom claims also had a sexual relationship with her son.

It has been reported that during this touring time for the rapper, he was surrounded by drugs. Rolling Stone states that fans “lobbed bags of Xanax, cocaine and other drugs onstage while he was performing”. 

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In the Rolling Stone report, Gothboiclique’s Mackned states Lil Peep wanted to leave First Access because of creative differences regarding the pace of his album rollout for Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 1. Peep reportedly texted Ortega that he was distraught about continuing to work with the company.

“I don’t want to be lil peep g I’d rather work at Starbucks. . . . I just feel like I should be doing everything that first access is trying to do for me because they don’t have shit on me and they should be paying me to do their job,” Rolling Stone reports Peep texted. “They’re all fucking dumb and suck at their jobs or they just aren’t from the new generation and don’t get it.”

Mercer joined Peep’s team when he began the North American leg of the Come Over When You’re Sober tour in the fall of 2017. It was during this time people in Peep’s circle state they saw a mass amount of drugs on the tour bus, and state they also saw Mercer take part in consuming drugs like ketamine and giving them to others on the run. Mercer has denied these claims.

Lil Peep died on a tour bus in Tucson, Arizona at the age of 21. His death was ruled an accidental overdose on generic Xanax mixed with fentanyl.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental illness, there is help to be found. Please consider these online resources and talk to your regular doctor about your symptoms:

SAMHSA’s National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

ImAlive – Online Crisis Network
The Anxiety And Depression Association Of America
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Suicide Prevention Initiatives
The Jed Foundation

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