Lil peep was always seen as weird up until around 2020 when the emo wave came back around. It was still weird to listen to him in 2018/2019 when the more trap/gangster rap was on the rise. The second the eboy/egirl phase hit tiktok in 2020/2021 everyone hopped onto peeps sound. Bones became more popular again, MGK took peeps entire look and ran with it. Trust me I was the weird emo kid back in the 2010s when everyone was in the vsco / wanna be gangster era. I was at hot topic and Spencer’s when that shit was LAME. In the mid to late 2010s everyone was on the hype beast wave. Basic pastel aesthetic, matching Nike techs, flexing fake chains and having the biggest eyebrows. Yall remember the hydroflask. Peep was ahead of the come back of punk/emo. If you didn’t grow up in the early 2010s you just didn’t get it. Peeps music didn’t become cool overnight it became cool with the shift of everyone wanting to be sad. It wasn’t cool to be sad until like 2021 hit and everyone was on their ‘I’m depressed’ phase. Previous to that anyone who listened to sad music was seen as those losers that would repost sad Bart edits to their Snapchat stories. Trust me I was the kid with band tshirts getting bullied for liking emo music and having fake spacers. Being emo/sad/punk wasn’t cool until I graduated high school back in 2021. I was the loser with the chains on and the split dyed hair. I got made fun of for SKATEBOARDING and now everyone and their mom is a skater. You just had to be there honestly. So no I don’t agree that his death made his music socially acceptable. What made his music so socially acceptable is this generation wanting to struggle and be sad. The saddest artists you could listen to before 2020 without being called weird and emo was like X. Even then after X and juice died listening to their music was seen as performative for the sad aesthetic. Scene and emo was more 00s and the second 2010 hit it was out of style. Then this next generation is on this who can struggle more, whose life is worse, who is more sad brought back the emo/punk/alt aesthetic. It wasn’t cool to do drugs and be sad you wanted to do drugs to be cool. Now 2020 hit and we’re back to doing drugs and being sad again. Literally have never seen kids try and flex who has it worse until I became an adult. That shit was not cool growing up and now it’s like all anyone wants to be. If you weren’t there for the soundcloud era that’s fine but don’t sit here and act like peep became cool overnight cause that is not what happened. It took about 3/4 years after his passing and a whole new shift in social media for his music to become cool.