UPDATED 10/8/19 10:22 p.m. ET: First Access Entertainment released a statement denying responsibility over Lil Peep's death. Read it in full below:
Lil Peep’s death from an accidental drug overdose was a terrible tragedy. However, the claim that First Access Entertainment, any of its employees, or Chase Ortega, or anyone else under our auspices was somehow responsible for, complicit in, or contributed to his death is categorically untrue. In fact, we consistently encouraged Peep to stop abusing drugs and to distance himself from the negative influence of the drug users and enablers with whom he chose to associate.
See original story below.
Liza Womack, Lil Peep's mother, has sued First Access Entertainment.
Per a TMZ report, the suit was filed Monday against First Access "and people associated with" the entertainment company. In the suit, Womack argues that the use of drugs was "allowed, normalized, and even encouraged" by management.
The suit also references specific moments during Peep's final tour, some of which are also recounted in the upcoming documentary Everybody's Everything, including a May 2017 show in Los Angeles which saw the celebrated artist "barely able to communicate" due to drugs. First Access members, however, allowed him to perform anyway.
Ultimately, the suit argues, pushing Peep to perform (despite alleged requests to drop off the tour) resulted in his November 2017 death. Womack, who appears extensively in the aforementioned documentary, is suing for unspecified damages.
The First Access team, per a Rolling Stonefeature from earlier this year, was first introduced to Peep in the summer of 2016. "I was like, Oh, my god, he's so beautiful," CEO Sarah Stennett said of the introduction. "I was very taken with the visuals."
Chase Ortega, credited in the article as Peep's manager, ultimately encouraged Peep to sign with First Access amid label buzz due to the fact that—according to Ortega—no one else matched the enthusiasm they were getting at the time from Stennett. The Peep x First Access relationship, however, is said to have grown complicated as time went on.
"They're all fucking dumb and suck at their jobs or they just aren't from the new generation and don't get it," Peep reportedly said in a text to Ortega, as cited in the RS piece.
Other First Access clients include Makonnen, Bebe Rexha, Winnie Harlow, and Cailin Russo.
Monday, Peep's inventive instaclassic "Kiss" landed among the 200 songs determined by Pitchfork as the best of the 2010s. The multi-movement track is notable as one of a series of one-off singles released in the months leading up to Peep's debut studio album Come Over When You're Sober Pt. 1.
RIP.
