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Should ‘Falling Down’ Have Been Released At All?

How could two rappers, who have both passed away, collaborate on a track despite never being in the same studio together? This is the miracle of the age of almost limitless technology, depending on your point of view.

On Wednesday, Lil Peep and XXXTentacion dropped a track, ‘Falling Down’ despite the fact that both artists passed away long before the track’s release. The posthumous track is the first of it’s kind in that neither of the deceased rappers ever worked together when they were alive. Producer, John Cunnigham, is the curator of the track as the two sing about watching “the rain as it’s falling down” in this guitar led beat that is a marvel of the modern technological era and demonstrates the boundless possibilities for an artist to live on beyond their death. However, it does beg the question of morality, respect and the legacy of who the artist was and what they stood for.

The track came about in this way; Back in August, Portland rapper and singer, iLoveMakonnen, announced that the release of a collaboration between the two rappers was imminent and it manifested itself in the track ‘Falling Down’. iLoveMakonnen said he had been working on an album together in London last year, but it was never finished, probably due to Peep’s untimely death. One of the tracks that was finished was ‘Sunlight on Your Skin‘ and this is the track that developed into ‘Falling Down’.

Specifically, Mackonnen said “It came together from me and Lil Peep’s session in London when we were working on our album there…X had heard the snippet on YouTube and he wanted to be a part of it and he recorded some parts to it.”! “[X] ended up passing away, and his mom and his family were reaching out to Peep’s management and everybody saying the song was something that [X] was very passionate about it before he passed and he would really like to be a part of this and [asked] if we could make this happen. So I was like, ‘Sure.’ That’s what me and Peep were making music for, to bring people together.”

He also went on to explain that both artist’s Mothers were heavily involved in creating of the track as a means of closure and healing.

So, we see that the track was made to commemorate both of these highly acclaimed and influential young artists who were sadly taken without warning at the peak of their careers and the track serves as a final addition to the chapter of their lives. However, it’s worth noting who these artists were and what they thought of each other.

Following the tracks release, many of Peep’s friends and collaborators shared their opinion of the song on Genius. GothBoiClique producer Fish Narc shared his thoughts on Instagram saying:

“Peep never heard the Triple X feature, cause it didn’t get made until after he was gone,” Fish explained. “He explicitly rejected Triple X for his abuse of women. He spent time and money getting Triple X’s songs removed from his Spotify playlist and wouldn’t have co-signed that song.” 

And, in a tweet that has since been deleted, Peep collaborator, Lil Tracy posted, “they was never even friends didn’t even like each other.” In an old sub-reddit where fans discuss the possibility of Peep and Triple X doing collaboration, a lot of light is shed on their relationship before either of their deaths.

Is it morally right to carry on an artist’s legacy without them being there to guide and advise what that legacy is? To clarify, this is by no means the only time an artist has appeared on a track after their death. We can all remember 2Pac’s 2004 posthumous hit single ‘Ghetto Gospel‘ when producer Eminem sampled Elton John’s 1971 track, ‘Indian Sunset.’ Now neither of these artists had any beef between each other, to the best of my knowledge, but neither were ever in the studio together and ‘Ghetto Gospel’ is a remix of a previously unreleased version in which two of the four verses recorded by 2Pac were removed to place the Elton John sample in their place.

Now that’s an example of a posthumous release that went well in the eyes of friends, family and fans, but, as I said, this is a dangerous game to play. Back in 2013, Drake and Chris Brown took flak from beat maestro Timbaland. Timbaland was a long time producer, mentor and friend of the late R&B artist, Aaliyah. After her death in August 2001, Drake released the track ‘Enough Said’ in 2012 in which he sampled Aaliyah’s unreleased track of the same title.

//web.archive.org/embed/yy4yv0gWAn0” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>He told MTV at the time “In music, people always say, ‘I’m going to do a song with Aaliyah.’ It will never work…Chris Brown got a record, it won’t work. Drake can go do a record with Aaliyah, it ain’t gonna work.”

Now here’s the part I can’t prove, Columbia Records involvement in ‘Falling Rain’. According to iLoveMakonnen, it was the two rapper’s Mothers who spear-headed the remix and release of this track. However, this track is released under Columbia and this is a slightly suspicious factor in this tracks story. GothBoiClique, the genre and collective that envelopes Peep’s style of Emo Rap/Rock, was quick to express their distaste at the track release. One of GBC’s founding members, Wicca Phase, posted to Twitter to express his anger through the depiction of Saturn consuming his son by Goya, captioning it with “accurate depiction of the relationship between major labels and their artists.”

 

The official account of GBC offered some more criticisms by posting “trash” and “fuck you @columbiarecords.

So, the possibility of Columbia Records spotting the opportunity to release a track from two highly adored artists who recently passed away at a very young age with a very young and widespread fan-base is, in my opinion, very likely. Of course, I believe that the two Mother’s were involved and they had their reasons for supporting it and wanting this track be brought to life, but Columbia’s involvement does emit a level of cynicism and greed. In case you were wondering, Triple X was never signed to Columbia, whereas, Peep was.

As always opinions from you are welcome so be sure to let me know in the comments what you make of this track. Is it relevant? Is it right? Is it such a big deal for a collaboration between two artists who have passed away that previously had beef and aren’t around to consent to this release?

 

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