Juice WRLD

Juice WRLD (born December 2, 1998, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.—died December 8, 2019, Oak Lawn, Illinois) was an American rapper known for his freestyling ability and introspective lyrics. He first gained popularity on the music streaming platform SoundCloud but rapidly entered the pop mainstream to great success, garnering billions of streams in a career of only two years.

Early life and rap career

Higgins was born on December 2, 1998, and raised in Chicago’s south suburbs by his mother after his parents divorced when he was three years old. He demonstrated an affinity for music at an early age, and by the time he was six years old, his mother had signed him up for music lessons. He could memorize songs and learn how to play a new instrument—piano, percussion, and, later, guitar—in just days, impressing his teachers. By his second year of high school, Higgins was uploading songs that he recorded on his cell phone to SoundCloud under the name JuicetheKidd—a reference to the movie Juice (1992), in which 2Pac’s character sported a haircut similar to Higgins’s. He later shifted to the name Juice WRLD. “Honestly, I’m not even sure where the word ‘Wrld’ came from,” he told an interviewer in 2018. “I was just trying to be creative.”

He released his first EP, Juice WRLD 9 9 9, on SoundCloud in 2017, the same year he graduated from high school. The collection of singles was produced by DT and Nick Mira, two high schoolers Higgins had met on Twitter. The project attracted the attention of big names in the Chicago music scene, eventually reaching Cole Bennett, the founder of the music promotion company Lyrical Lemonade. Higgins and Bennett began working on a music video for “All Girls Are the Same,” and they posted it to YouTube on February 25, 2018. It exploded in popularity overnight. By June, another single from the EP, “Lucid Dreams,” had reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, later peaking at number two.

The decidedly melancholy track, built on a sample of Sting’s “Shape of My Heart,” would become a defining moment in the SoundCloud and emo rap movements. The lyrics of “Lucid Dreams” express an impassioned mixture of rage and sorrow through the relatable woes of heartbreak, while Higgins’s delivery demonstrates a nonchalant but complex melding of melodic singing and rapping. The catchy hook and iconic instrumental have earned the track more than two billion streams on Spotify alone. He later recalled that he recorded the song in about 20 minutes.

Amid the success of “Lucid Dreams,” Higgins signed a deal worth $3 million with Interscope Records. His first full-length studio album under the name Juice WRLD, Goodbye & Good Riddance, was released in May 2018. It peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 albums list and, as of mid-2023, has spent over five years on that list without dropping below the top 100. In October 2018 Juice WRLD appeared on Tim Westwood’s radio show, putting his freestyling abilities on full display for an improvisational rap that lasted more than an hour. That same month Juice WRLD released a collaborative album with established Atlanta rapper Future, also known for his melodic flows. Future & Juice WRLD Present… WRLD ON DRUGS debuted at number one on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Juice WRLD had many musical influences, mixing Chicago drill reminiscent of Lil Durk and Chief Keef with emo pop-punk flair derived from acts such as Panic! at the Disco and blink-182. He became an exemplar of the SoundCloud rap scene, alongside contemporaries Lil Peep and XXXTentacion. Juice WRLD and the SoundCloud rap genre he helped define employed sometimes sombre if not macabre lyrics, with references to homicide and suicide flitting between the bars. Drug use is a recurring theme in Juice WRLD’s music, and references to mental illness are common in both his discography and that of other SoundCloud rappers. Juice WRLD himself said he wanted to normalize discussions around anxiety and depression.

Lil Peep and XXXTentacion were, like Juice WRLD, youthful talents thrust into the limelight through the SoundCloud scene. Lil Peep died in 2017 at age 21 due to an accidental drug overdose; XXXTentacion, amid a litany of criminal charges, was shot and killed in 2018, when he was 20. Juice WRLD released a two-song EP titled Too Soon.. (2018) in the aftermath of their deaths, with the song “Legends” serving as a tribute to them. “What’s the 27 Club? We’re not making it past 21,” Juice WRLD rapped.

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Juice WRLD released his second LP, Death Race for Love, in March 2019 and promoted it with a North American tour alongside rapper Ski Mask the Slump God. He joined Nicki Minaj that same year for a series of shows in Europe, dubbed Nicki Wrld Tour, before headlining an Australian tour.

Death and aftermath

During his time in Australia Juice WRLD’s concerned friends confronted him about his drug use. Juice WRLD had begun using as a freshman in high school, and his rate of consumption intensified as his fame grew. He was misusing Xanax and Percocet, and he was also using “lean”—a mixture of prescription cough syrup (containing codeine and sometimes promethazine) and soda. He described this drug use as a way to manage his mental health. Juice WRLD agreed to seek help, and he booked a stay in a rehab centre for December 2019.

Before going to rehab Juice WRLD took a private jet to Chicago from Los Angeles to celebrate his 21st birthday. Accompanied by his influencer girlfriend, Ally Lotti, collaborator and protégé the Kid LAROi, security team, and others, Juice WRLD landed at Midway Airport in Chicago and was met by law enforcement. A federal task force had been tipped off that drugs and guns could be on the plane, although some have speculated that Juice WRLD was the subject of systemic racial profiling. While officers conducted a search and interrogated his entourage, Juice WRLD suffered a seizure and died on the way to the hospital on December 8, 2019, six days after he had turned 21. The official cause of death was an accidental overdose of codeine and oxycodone.

In the aftermath of Juice WRLD’s death, two members of his security team were charged with misdemeanours for illegal possession of a firearm, but no drug charges were filed, even though 70 pounds of marijuana and six bottles of prescription cough medicine were found on the plane, along with pistols and metal-piercing ammunition. Juice WRLD’s fame meant that his death was widely reported, and speculation about the cause of his death resulted in a claim that he had consumed an abundance of pills in order to hide them from the authorities who were searching his plane. This claim is discredited by Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss (2021), an HBO documentary incorporating archival footage of the rapper and testimonies from those close to him.

In April 2020 Juice WRLD’s mother, Carmela Wallace, created the Live Free 999 foundation in her son’s honour to provide aid to youth struggling with mental illness and addiction. Juice WRLD’s posthumous album Legends Never Die debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 list on July 10, 2020; it has since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, as have all of Juice WRLD’s preceding albums. Another posthumous album, Fighting Demons, was released in December 2021 and includes features from Justin Bieber, Trippie Redd, BTS, and others.