Liza Womack, mother of the late emo-rapper Lil Peep, accused his label First Access Entertainment of withholding $4 million in unpaid royalties. Womack also claimed that the label’s actions had been a part of the long-lasting conflict; in 2019, Liza Womack filed a wrongful death lawsuit against First Access Entertainment. Lil Peep tragically died from an overdose in 2017, at the age of 21. The lawsuit accuses those around him of supplying him with drugs and pressuring him to perform.
First Access Entertainment pleaded not guilty to the unpaid royalties charge at a court hearing in Los Angeles on September 28. Instead, they blamed Womack for the payment delays.
“FAE is trying to choke off her funds by denying royalty revenue that they know she’s owed,” Womack’s lawyer stated in open court. “We believe that they’re woefully undercapitalized, we believe they have co-mingled the funds that are due to the estate, and we are very concerned that they’re going to squander that money away.”
In response, First Access Entertainment’s lawyer stated that “It is not true that FAE owes the estate over $4 million. That’s simply not true. That’s just an argument used to gain someone’s sympathy here.”
The 2019 Lawsuit
The 2019 wrongful death lawsuit claimed Lil Peep’s managers ignored both his physical and mental health needs. The artist had been pushed “onto stage after stage in city after city,” while Peep’s team had allegedly been “plying and propping him up” with drugs and prescriptions. These included Xanax, ketamine, and more. Lil Peep also got a refusal from managers when asking to leave the tour. During that same Come Over When You’re Sober pt. 1 tour, Peep fatally overdosed.
Womack also claims one of Peep’s managers had given the late rapper a bottle of pills as a gift while on tour. This allegedly provoked the rapper’s “rampant” drug use and, consequentially, his death.
The legal battle has been ongoing since 2019. “My wrongful death suit is about my son and how people need to be treated and shouldn’t be treated,” Womack told Pitchfork in May 2021.
Lil Peep has also been recently sued himself, together with the late XXXTentacion. The subject of their case is posthumous track “Falling Down,” which allegedly samples another artist’s riff. Read more of our coverage of that case here.
Written by Nikita Serdiuk | IG: @nikitasrdk | Twitter: @nktserdiuk