Meaning of “Life is Beautiful” by Lil Peep

The song “Life is Beautiful” is the late rapper Lil Peep’s profound, sarcastic look at depressing aspects of life. And yes his life was indeed depressing. Some of the lyrics, especially those more or less prophesying his own death, now have an extra sense of gravity since Lil Peep did indeed pass away from a drug overdose in 2017.

Verse 1

This song basically consists of one long, continuous verse. Peep begins the verse by mentioning that even though some parts of “everyday” living are unsatisfactory, life itself is still something to be appreciated. The song then gets more personal as Peep talks about the pain he experienced. And does he mention this pain? However, afterwards, he still proclaims that “life is beautiful.”

He then goes into the third-person by featuring the short tale of a patient who is “stuck inside a hospital” because he or she has been diagnosed with an “inoperable” disease.  Yet once again after questioning the beauty of life he asserts that it is.

Next Lil Peep tells the tale of a person who was killed because “he’s a criminal” and warns the victim’s older brother that he can share the same fate, so he “better not get physical”.  Keeping with the sarcastic tone of the song as well as the era it was written in, this is most likely an admonishment for the listener to be wary of police brutality in America. This story is also concluded with the author questioning life’s beauty and stating his belief that it is so.

However, in contrast, Lil Peep spends the next four bars exhibiting a more-pessimistic tone and for the first time mentions his own death. He then concludes them saying that, unlike the previous stanza, he now “think(s) that life is horrible”.

Peep then goes into brief account about an intimate relationship with a female. Although he is fascinated with the girl, she doesn’t seem to share the same sentiment. This makes him to ultimately admit that chances are against the union actually flourishing despite his initial optimism. Now instead of referring to life as “beautiful” or “horrible”, he refers to it as “comical”. Hence for the first time demonstrating indisputable sarcasm since a failed love is nothing to laugh about.

The next eight bars are dedicated primarily to the concepts of friendship and death. Peep starts off by examining the loyalty of a friend and trying to ascertain to what lengths said buddy would go to prevent him from dying. The final part of this section are a bit harder to decipher though give the impression that Peep more or less expected to “die alone” yet somehow anticipated finding friendship through death. This is a clear sign of depression or more specifically a feeling of loneliness.

Outro

The song ends with the lyricist repeatedly asking and then answering that life is indeed beautiful. Given that the preceding and singular verse of the song was primarily gloomy, frequently mentioned death and ended on the note of the singer dying alone, one of two conclusions can be drawn.

First as aforementioned is the fact that this track clearly has an ironic tone. However, it can also be determined that his affirmative conclusions on the beauty of life even after most of the tragedies mentioned illustrates an attempt by Lil Peep to find value in living even though he may not have necessarily wanted to be alive.

Quick Facts about “Life is Beautiful”

• “Life is Beautiful” was written by Lil Peep as far back as in 2015. His friend and longtime collaborator Smokeasac handled the song’s production.
• Peep’s management released this track on November 7, 2018. It is officially the third single from the album Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 2 (COWYS2). COWYS2 is Peep’s posthumous second album. The album also features the singles “Cry Alone” and “Runaway“.
• The music video for “Life is Beautiful” was released simultaneously with the track. It got over a million views in just a few hours of being released.
• According to Peep’s mother Liza Womack, the video of the song was shot a few years ago in the family’s basement in Long Beach, New York. At the time of the shooting of the video, Peep lived with his mother.
• In the video, Peep clearly has no face tattoos. That’s because at the time the video was shot, he hadn’t yet gotten himself any face tattoos.
• The glasses he wears in the clip, are actually prescription glasses. According to his mother, he had just gotten the glasses and was proud of them. Hence he decided to shoot a video wearing them.