Rappers Mac Miller, Lil Peep and XXXTentacion’s sudden passings took over social media one after another. These three famous artists’ deaths made an impact on many both while alive and gone, but one peculiar thing that seemed to happen to all of them was their rise in popularity following their fatalities. According to Billboard, following Lil Peep’s drug overdose and death, he gained up to 458 percent in popularity. After XXXTentacion’s death in June 2018, his sales skyrocketed 1,603 percent and Mac Miller gained a mass of 970 percent increase in popularity after his passing.

Having such an influence over the music industry, these musicians were inspirations to many young people, being they were very popular in the rap community. Junior Molly Myers is an avid listener of Mac Miller.

“I was a big Mac Miller fan; I still am,” Myers said. “It was something my brother and I bonded over.”

A common theme often occurs even when people in our lives pass away; many people appear to be more interested once someone’s gone. Social media often largely popularizes artists after their deaths and suddenly ‘huge fans’ start popping up everywhere. For people who have always listened to these rappers and truly enjoyed it when they were here, this can be upsetting.

“I feel like just because of [XXXTentacion’s] death, more people started to care even though they never really listened to him before,” senior Pranav Malpeddi said. “He even tweeted that once.”

People have taken away different things from the deaths of Mac Miller and Lil Peep in specific. The fact that both rappers died from a drug overdose poses a question to be answered: are drugs promoted too excessively in today’s society and music? Myers likes to think of it a difficult erent way.

“I think a lot of times you have to separate the art from the artists,” she said. “If a rapper is rapping about something you wouldn’t do, like drugs, I still may enjoy their music without necessarily believing in their message.”

From the post-trauma gains in popularity to the cause of their deaths, rappers Mac Miller, XXXTentacion and Lil Peep, fans and ‘fans’ alike interpreted these fatalities differently; and whether something should or can be done about it is up to the listeners.