Lil Peep’s managers have responded to the wrongful death lawsuit brought forth by his mother, Liza Womack. According to court documents obtained by The Blast, First Access Entertainment has denied responsibility for what they’ve called the late rapper’s “self-inflicted” death.
In the documents, the entertainment company argues that it cannot be held liable “for her adult son’s risky behavior and unfortunate but self-inflicted demise.”
“[Lil Peep] cannot be deemed a helpless child in the eyes of the law,” his former manager’s statement reads. “He was an adult. He co-owned and co-controlled the Joint Venture. This included his tour. Just as universities have little control over off-campus social activities, the FAE entities did not control or have the right to control [Lil Peep’s] personal life, including his drug use. The policy of preventing future harm factor weighs against imposing a duty, too.”
“[Lil Peep] was an adult,” the document continues. “He chose to take the drugs that killed him. Arm’s length business associates should not be strapped with a duty to protect each other from self-inflicted harm.”
Back in October, Womack sued his management team and tour company and accused them of supplying her son with drugs, which she believes ultimately led to his death. Furthermore, she claimed his managers encouraged his drug use and once gifted him a bottle of pills during a celebratory dinner. Womack alleges that his team supplied him with Xanax, Ketamine and other drugs.
Elsewhere in her lawsuit, Womack also claimed that while on tour, Peep’s managers had allowed him to perform while on drugs. She also says he had continuously asked to end the tour early, due to physical and mental exhaustion. Womack insists that instead, Peep’s managers continued to supply him with drugs to keep him on the road. Finally, one of his managers allegedly instructed the rapper to take an “excessive amount of Xanax” in order to get him sick, so that he could end the tour and use insurance to cover the cancellation costs.
“This is something that I must do as a mother,” Womack perviously told The New York Times. “I feel very concerned that they not be exploited. What [Peep] had to live through is actually horrifying to me, and I’m sure he’s not the only person his age in this situation.”
The 21-year-old rapper died from an overdose of fentanyl and Xanax in 2017 while he was on tour.