artists in this movement generally stayed on the audio distribution site soundcloud, and made a large impact on the movement known as "soundcloud rap" until lil uzi vert's "xo tour llif3" became a sleeper hit. the song, characterized as emo hip hop due to its lyrics referring to suicide and emotional breakdowns peaked at number seven on the "billboard" hot 100. in august 2017, xxxtentacion released his debut album "17" with the lead single "jocelyn flores" which addresses the suicide of a friend and lil uzi vert released his debut studio album "luv is rage 2". the release of both the projects and their high peak on the "billboard" 200 led to people defining the projects as "emo hip hop" and further speculation on whether emo hip hop was a legitimate subgenre and a part of the emo revival, with figureheads such as lil peep claiming that emo hip hop was not a part of the emo revival, but a subgenre of its own. at the same time, lil peep was branded the "future of emo" in january 2017 and fronted as a pioneer of the emo revival by "the guardian".