Sports fans both, they lost their lives to drugs. It’s happening over and over again in our country. Let’s put an end to the epidemic.
Lil Peep (Gustav Elijah Åhr) and Mac Miller (Malcolm James McCormick) have things in common. Both were rappers with hit songs and large fan followings, both struggled with addiction, and both died young–within a year of each other. They were huge sports fans, too.
Lil Peep (photo, Clash Magazine)
Lil Peep was known for hits like Awful Things, Benz Truck, and the posthumously released I’ve Been Waiting, featuring ILoveMakonnen and the rock group, Fall Out Boy.
Lil Peep was a big hockey and racing fan, too. In his posthumously-released song, Gym Class, Peep raps, “Whip it like a NASCAR, I can see the time pass, feel like I’m in high school…in gym class.” Peep was also a fan of New Jersey Devils pro hockey. He sported a Devils jersey on the cover of his mixtape, Hellboy.
Sadly, Lil Peep died at the age of twenty-one by way of an overdose of Fentanyl Xanax. He was on the road, scheduled to perform in Tucson.
Mac Miller (photo, Variety)
Mac Miller, known for hits like The Way with Ariana Grande, and his Grammy-nominated album, Swimming, was a huge football fan.
On the final day of his life, Mac watched a Pittsburgh Steelers game at a party with friends. He died there from an overdose of fentanyl cocaine. He was twenty-six. In death, Mac received tributes from the sports world, from NFL to UFC.
These sports-loving rappers were taken from us too soon. They live on through their music.
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This article is dedicated to the memory of Hella Sketchy, a rising Soundcloud rapper, who we lost at the age of 18 to the opioid crisis. We need to take care of this now so that we don’t lose another athlete, sports fan, parent, or another son or daughter, aunt or uncle, and father or mother, to opioids. May all who lost their lives to opioids rest in peace.
