{"id":2289360,"date":"2026-02-19T16:48:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2289360"},"modified":"2026-02-19T16:48:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:48:02","slug":"releasing-an-artists-music-after-their-death-is-unethical-the-colgate-maroon-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/releasing-an-artists-music-after-their-death-is-unethical-the-colgate-maroon-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Releasing an Artist\u2019s Music After Their Death Is Unethical \u2013 The Colgate Maroon-News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"sno-story-body-content\">\n<div class=\"sno-story-body-media\">\n<div class=\"snodo-story-body-photo\">\n<div class=\"sno-story-photo-area\">\n<div class=\"photowrap\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"modal-photo photooverlay\" data-story-id=\"53871\" data-photo-id=\"54076\" href=\"#photo\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-label=\"View larger version of image.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"sno-story-photo-image-area\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thecolgatemaroonnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/B3_music.png\" alt=\"Releasing an Artist\u2019s Music After Their Death Is Unethical\" style=\"width:100%\" class=\"catboxphoto feature-image\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My Spotify recommended is always overflowing with hot new singles and up-and-coming artists whose names I\u2019ve never heard. As much as I love discovering new music, it can get overwhelming at times. When this happens, my favorite solution is to revisit my old playlists and take a trip down memory lane. That\u2019s what I decided to do earlier this week, and as I listened to the nostalgic beats of my old favorites, I began to remember how much I loved each song. In particular, I remembered my early high school love for <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/lilpeep.com\/?srsltid=AfmBOoqpBVnFw6REliEOJzAcC_mpCZtmXndN_FBJY9cDT1dg1SLL1O7O\">Lil Peep<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I searched his name to add a few more songs to my queue, and to my surprise, I saw that even he had released a new album just this month \u2014 an impressive feat when you take into consideration that Lil Peep has been <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/11\/16\/obituaries\/lil-peep-dead.html\">dead<\/a> for almost seven years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s no new trend for rappers to be releasing music from beyond the grave (or, more accurately, for their producers to be doing it for them). Juice WRLD\u2019s album \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Legends Never Die\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0was released posthumously, and it ended up being one of the top <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.complex.com\/music\/a\/backwoodsaltar\/top-performing-most-streamed-albums-songs-of-2020\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">streamed albums of 2020<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. However, Lil Peep\u2019s discography struck me as an extreme case of this. Since his death in 2017, over a dozen singles and five albums have been released in Peep\u2019s name. He\u2019s technically released <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/2kCcBybjl3SAtIcwdWpUe3\">more music<\/a> after dying than he did during his lifetime. At first, I found the absurdity of this a little funny, and checking his Spotify became somewhat of a game for me \u2014 I literally found a new song or album every time I looked. However, it eventually became hard for me to ignore how insane it is that an artist who has been dead for years is \u201cmaking\u201d as much new music as some of today\u2019s most popular singers. Although a part of me loves the new content, I think the constant posthumous release of new songs is completely unethical and a problematic way to continue deceased artists\u2019 legacies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some of Lil Peep\u2019s most popular songs were released posthumously. In 2018, his team released the album \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Come Over When You\u2019re Sober, Pt. 2<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d one of my personal favorites. It included a bonus track called \u201cFalling Down,\u201d a duet with rapper XXXTentacion. Similar to Peep, XXXTentacion died tragically young and has a number of posthumous albums and singles that were released as recently as last year. \u201cFalling Down\u201d used to be one of my favorite songs, partially due to the emotional impact of both rappers being dead at the time it was released. However, after I learned more about the song, it completely changed the way I looked at it. Many of Peep\u2019s close friends and associates said that <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/lil-peep-xxxtentacion-falling-down-collaboration-726349\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">he hated XXXTentacion<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and never would\u2019ve made a song with him. Lil Tracy, who collaborated with Peep regularly, said in a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2018\/09\/lil-peep-xxxtentacion-collaboration-falling-down\/\">since-deleted tweet<\/a> that the two <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">weren\u2019t friends<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and openly disliked each other. To me, this proves that releasing an artist\u2019s work after their death can completely skew their image and go against their wishes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The more I thought about it, the more the idea of an artist\u2019s label releasing their music after the artist\u2019s death raised some questions: Who gets the money? How do we know if these artists actually wanted certain samples used and released? What are the true intentions of the producers of posthumous music?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In terms of money, typically, the rappers\u2019 <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@kkshaw\/where-the-money-goes-who-reaps-the-rewards-of-dead-musicians-4ff788ba51f6\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">estate managers and family members<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> receive it, as well as the producers of the songs. Producer iLoveMakonnen receives a huge cut of Peep\u2019s unreleased songs. The two were <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.grammy.com\/news\/lil-peep-ilovemakonnen-creating-diamonds-interview-videos\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">good friends<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> during Peep\u2019s lifetime, making it even more questionable to me that he\u2019s making money off of duets created after Peep\u2019s death with artists he supposedly hated. He claims his only intention is keeping Peep\u2019s memory alive, but his monetary stake in it makes me wonder if that\u2019s really all. Even worse, for years Peep\u2019s record label was making a cut of the profits despite being <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/thepitch\/lil-peeps-mother-on-her-ongoing-legal-fight-i-want-justice-for-gus\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">involved in a wrongful death lawsuit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with his mother. The fact that Peep\u2019s label was making money off his posthumous releases while actively being sued for their involvement in his death undoubtedly proves how unethical posthumous music releases can be.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For me, one of the biggest issues is we can\u2019t know whether or not these artists even want certain songs released. They aren\u2019t here to tell us, and even their closest friends and family members, in my opinion, can\u2019t be trusted to uphold their artistic integrity. In the most obvious case of \u201cFalling Down,\u201d Peep seems like he wouldn\u2019t have wanted the song released, and it seems like those close to him would\u2019ve known that. It\u2019s impossible to tell how many other unfinished samples deceased rappers might not have wanted to be released, so putting these songs out to the public is potentially a huge violation on their artistic integrity and could be doing more harm than good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ll admit that while I question the ethics behind these new releases, I still can\u2019t stop myself from listening to them. However, I think new music from dead artists is generally well-received by fans because we\u2019re only interested in it as a way to keep our favorites from being forgotten. We can enjoy the music because we don\u2019t have anything else to gain from it. However, I don\u2019t think the same intentions are true of those producing the songs and making money off them. Aside from all the evidence leading me to think this, I just think the production quality of Peep\u2019s posthumous music has declined over time. The songs seem to be getting shorter and shorter, and sometimes samples are even reused in generic and borderline lazy ways. It seems to me like an obvious attempt to make money fast.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As nice as it is for fans of these artists to continue experiencing new music, the whole thing seems to me like a shady attempt at using big names for a quick cash grab poorly disguised as a way to honor these artists and keep their legacy alive.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source thecolgatemaroonnews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Spotify recommended is always overflowing with hot new singles and up-and-coming artists whose names I\u2019ve never heard. As much as I love discovering new music, it can get overwhelming at times. When this happens, my favorite solution is to revisit my old playlists and take a trip down memory lane. That\u2019s what I decided [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2289361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2289360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Releasing-an-Artists-Music-After-Their-Death-Is-Unethical-\u2013.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2289360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2289362,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289360\/revisions\/2289362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2289361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2289360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2289360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2289360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}