Lil Peep left a lasting impression on many hip hop fans and one of them happens to be none other than Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, who has compared the late rapper to Kurt Cobain.
Chatting to Upset magazine in a recent interview, Corgan was talking about the Smashing Pumpkins’ new album Cyr before comparing Lil Peep to Cobain:
“This album is the result of us trying to come into the modern world,” Corgan says but rather than just use Lil Peep inspired beats (an artist who he believes was “his generation’s Kurt Cobain”), the band wanted it to feel like their own trip.
That seemingly throwaway line about Lil Peep is the only instance where Corgan talks about the late rapper in his interview, but one can read a lot into what Billy is trying to say here.
While it’s not clear what Corgan sees in Lil Peep that evoked comparisons to Cobain, the reason is likely similar to how he thought the young MC reminded him a bit about Metallica in that they both managed to tap into their angst with their work.
During a 2018 chat on the BUILD series, Corgan said how Metallica were able to “unleash” their angst into their music and praised Lil Peep as one of the few new artists who were able to do the same thing.
“I think Lil Peep, probably, of all the artists that I’ve heard recently tapped into that same angst and it’s so sad he passed away because he was just getting to the bigger part of his work, you know?” Corgan remarked at the time.
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“He somehow, when I heard Lil Peep I was like ‘That’s exactly that same vibe!’ It’s like I’m at the 7-Eleven and I have all these deep feelings and thoughts and the 7-Eleven is the epicenter of my universe. For a lot of people, that is their life.”
Check out Billy Corgan praising Lil Peep on BUILD:
