{"id":239181,"date":"2026-04-20T17:36:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239181\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T17:36:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:36:06","slug":"remembering-lil-poppa-and-the-silent-struggles-of-young-adults-the-famuan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239181\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Lil Poppa and the\u00a0silent\u00a0struggles of\u00a0young\u00a0adults \u2013 The FAMUAN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_8905-1-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-55438\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Lil Poppa song playing on a phone. (Kiya Daye\/FAMUAN)<\/p>\n<p>Florida rapper\u00a0Janarious\u00a0Mykel Wheeler, known by the stage name Lil Poppa, died at\u00a0age\u00a025\u00a0in Georgia\u00a0on Feb.\u00a018 from a self- inflicted gunshot wound.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lil Poppa leaves behind a four-year-old son named PJ\u00a0that he fathered\u00a0with rapper Rick Ross\u2019s daughter Toie Roberts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He\u00a0made music that focused on topics like pain, street life, personal growth,\u00a0and\u00a0trauma.\u00a0The rapper\u00a0was known for songs including\u00a0\u201cEternal Living\u201d\u00a0featuring Polo\u00a0G, \u201cLove &amp; War\u201d,\u00a0and \u201cMind Over Matter\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Throughout these songs he spoke on losing friends to gun violence, mental health struggles,\u00a0and the pressure of fame at\u00a0a young age.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For fans, Lil Poppa\u2019s\u00a0death had\u00a0a huge impact\u00a0on Jacksonville.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jada Richard, Jacksonville\u00a0native,\u00a0says Lil Poppa\u2019s music was an outlet\u00a0for people struggling to express themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou see a lot of people who\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0like to express what\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0going through mentally,\u201d\u00a0Richard\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cIt gave them a chance to hear that somebody else was struggling through\u00a0the exact same things they were.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lil\u00a0Poppa\u2019s death\u00a0opens\u00a0an urgent conversation about mental health among young adults.\u00a0Many people suffer in silence and feel like they\u00a0have nowhere to turn.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nimh.nih.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">National Institution of Mental Health,<\/a>\u00a0in the United States, about 12\u201312.6% of young adults aged 18\u201325 reported having serious thoughts of suicide in the past year, significantly higher than older adult age groups.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lil Poppa\u2019s music reflected on this issue. He exposed\u00a0something that many young adults struggle with daily. Struggling with mental health internally while pretending to\u00a0be okay externally.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As he admitted in \u201cEternal Living,\u201d he was \u201csmiling through the pain.\u201d Revealing the emotional\u00a0shield\u00a0\u00a0many young adults hide behind while silently coping with anxiety, grief, and unresolved trauma.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tyrone\u00a0McGriff,\u00a0health instructor at Florida A&amp;M University,\u00a0says\u00a0that mental health\u00a0disparities can be caused by\u00a0unhealthy\u00a0lifestyles. While he is not familiar with Lil Poppa\u2019s\u00a0music,\u00a0he believes that certain music glorifies\u00a0hardship and\u00a0can have lasting effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u00a0have to\u00a0acknowledge that what\u00a0[we]\u00a0put\u00a0in\u00a0is going to produce something that will eventually come\u00a0out,\u201d\u00a0Tillman\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Mental Health\u00a0Council\u00a0of the Big Bend hosted their annual event called Momentum that focused on providing mental health resources and suicide prevention.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Aaron Tillman,\u00a0a mental\u00a0health\u00a0therapist,\u00a0says that sometimes people just need a space to be vulnerable and talk about what they\u00a0experience\u00a0daily.\u00a0He believes social media\u00a0has an influence on mental health.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI see a lot of issues and challenges with the youth being able to understand their significance based\u00a0off\u00a0what they see on social media,\u201d\u00a0Tillman\u00a0said. \u201cEverything feels like\u00a0its\u00a0telling them\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0not enough\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He\u00a0says some early signs of someone struggling with\u00a0mental health are someone becoming withdrawn or starting to isolate themselves, but it is easy to miss signs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0easy for someone to just say\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0all good, or\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0easy\u00a0for someone to hide behind performance, especially if\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0posting different things on social\u00a0media,\u201d Tillman\u00a0said. \u201cIf their life looks well externally, but inside they\u2019re hurting, I\u00a0think\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0easy\u00a0to miss\u00a0the pain\u00a0that people are experiencing.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tillman recalls his last moments with his dear friend Adner Marcelin, who he tragically lost due to suicide.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never really thought that was going to be the last moment that\u00a0I\u00a0would spend with him, and I\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0have been able\u00a0to tell that he was contemplating that\u201d\u00a0Tillman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tillman wants to leave young adults with the message \u201cexplore not ignore\u201d\u00a0as a reminder that it is always okay to talk about your feelings when you may feel anxiety or depression.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lil Poppa song playing on a phone. (Kiya Daye\/FAMUAN) Florida rapper\u00a0Janarious\u00a0Mykel Wheeler, known by the stage name Lil&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-239181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}