Juice Wrld

• 1. Introduction

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  In 2020, the rapper Juice Wrld was streamed on Spotify more than 5.9 billion times, which made him the fourth most streamed artist in the world. He had died the year before. The name is pronounced "juice world", and it belonged to a young man from Chicago born Jarad Anthony Higgins. He was an American rapper, singer and songwriter, and he became a leading figure in emo rap and SoundCloud rap, genres that reached the mainstream in the mid-to-late 2010s. How did a teenager who recorded songs on his phone end up at the top of the charts within a few years? Why did a boy whose mother banned hip-hop from the house become one of its defining voices? What happened on a private jet that December? And why did his catalog keep growing long after he was gone?

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• 2. Chicago Childhood

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  Jarad Anthony Higgins was born on the 2nd of December 1998 in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in the south suburbs and often played in Calumet Park. He later moved to Homewood and graduated from Homewood-Flossmoor High School in 2017.

  His parents divorced when he was three years old. He was raised in a single-parent home with his older brother and his mother, Carmella Wallace. She was very religious and conservative, and she did not let him listen to hip-hop. Rock and pop were allowed. Through video games such as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Guitar Hero, he discovered Blink-182, Megadeth, Black Sabbath, Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco.

  Drugs entered his life early. He first drank lean in the sixth grade, and in 2013 he began using Percocet and Xanax. He also smoked cigarettes, but he quit during his last year of high school because of health issues.

  At four years old he learned the piano, inspired by his mother, who later began paying for his lessons. He then took up the guitar and the drums, and he played the trumpet in band class. By his sophomore year of high school, he had begun to take rapping more seriously.

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• 3. A Name From Film

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  The first track Higgins put online was "Forever", which appeared on SoundCloud in 2015 under the name JuicetheKidd. He recorded most of his earliest songs on a cellphone.

  That first name came from his affection for Tupac Shakur's role in the film Juice. He and his associates later decided that a new name would help his career, and he became Juice Wrld, a name derived from the 1992 film. In an interview with the Atlanta radio station WHTA, he said the second half of the name originally meant nothing. Over time he came to believe it "represents taking over the world". For a short stretch in early 2017 he also performed simply as Juice.

  While he kept releasing songs on SoundCloud, Higgins took a factory job. He disliked it and was fired within two weeks. In 2017 he released "Too Much Cash", the first of his tracks produced by Nick Mira, who became a frequent collaborator. After joining the internet collective Internet Money, he put out his debut full-length EP, 9 9 9, on the 15th of June 2017. The song "Lucid Dreams" broke out from that project and grew his following.

  In mid-2017, Waka Flocka Flame and Southside took notice, as did fellow Chicago artists G Herbo and Lil Bibby. Higgins signed with Grade A Productions, a label Lil Bibby co-owned. In December 2017 he released the three-song EP Nothings Different. The hip-hop blog Lyrical Lemonade covered it, and its post helped "All Girls Are the Same" gain popularity.

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• 4. The Breakout Year

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  In February 2018, a music video for "All Girls Are the Same" arrived, directed by Cole Bennett. Interscope Records then signed Higgins for $3 million. A remix featuring Lil Yachty was previewed but never officially released. Pitchfork gave the song its Best New Music designation, and it came out as a single in April. It and "Lucid Dreams" became his first entries on any Billboard chart, debuting on the Hot 100 at numbers 92 and 74.

  On the 4th of May 2018, "Lucid Dreams" was officially released as a single, with another Cole Bennett video. It peaked at number two on the Hot 100 and became one of the most streamed songs of the year. By January 2020 it had passed one billion streams on Spotify, and it was later certified diamond. "Lean Wit Me" followed on the 22nd of May and peaked at number 68. His debut album, Goodbye & Good Riddance, arrived the next day, and it later went triple platinum.

  On the 19th of June 2018, he released a two-song EP called Too Soon.., dedicated to the late rappers Lil Peep and XXXTentacion. Lil Peep had died of an overdose in 2017. XXXTentacion was murdered on the 18th of June 2018, one day before the release. Higgins said the two were friends who talked over FaceTime, and that their last conversation was about meeting up. The EP's cover is a screenshot of one of those conversations. The song "Legends" debuted at number 65 on the Hot 100.

  "Wasted", featuring Lil Uzi Vert, came out on the 10th of July. It was his first single with a collaborator and the only track on the album with a guest. On the 20th of July he announced his first tour, WRLD Domination, with YBN Cordae and Lil Mosey. He also appeared with Sheck Wes on Travis Scott's "No Bystanders", from the album Astroworld, which reached number 31. On the 8th of August 2018 he made his late night television debut, performing "Lucid Dreams" on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

  In October he released "Armed and Dangerous" and then "Fine China", the lead single from Wrld on Drugs, a collaborative mixtape with Future. Epic Records released the mixtape on the 19th of October. On the 14th of December 2018, a song called "Hide", made with the singer Seezyn, appeared in the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and on its soundtrack.

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• 5. Death Race for Love

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  The 8th of March 2019 brought his second studio album, Death Race for Love, preceded by the singles "Robbery" and "Hear Me Calling". It topped the Billboard 200, giving him his first number one debut on that chart. A music video for the album track "Fast" followed on the 9th of April.

  In a December 2018 interview with XXL, Ski Mask the Slump God had confirmed a joint mixtape with Higgins called Evil Twins, planned for 2019. The project has not been released. The pair did announce a tour of 30 concerts across North America, billed as the Death Race for Love Tour, with a contribution from Lyrical Lemonade. Higgins also headlined The Nicki Wrld Tour alongside Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj.

  His father died in June 2019. That year Higgins kept releasing singles with a wide range of partners. "All Night" paired him with RM and Suga of BTS, "Hate Me" with Ellie Goulding, and "Graduation" with Benny Blanco. He also released "Run" and "Bandit", a track with NBA YoungBoy. Released in early October, "Bandit" peaked at number ten on the Hot 100 and turned out to be the last song he put out in his lifetime.

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• 6. Emo Rap and Freestyle

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  Spotify named "emo rap" its fastest growing genre in 2018, and Higgins was its most visible face. He described his influences as stretching across emo, hip-hop, rock, punk and R&B. He named Travis Scott, Chief Keef, Kanye West and the British rock singer Billy Idol as the biggest. Billboard writer Michael Saponara wrote: "If West and his sparse 808s were a tree, it would have grown another branch with the blossoming art displayed by fellow Chicago native Juice WRLD in 2018". Higgins credited Kanye West's album 808s & Heartbreak (2008) as the spark for openly vulnerable rappers. He said West was a time traveler who jumped to nearly 2015 and came back with something fresh.

  Brendon Urie, the frontman of Panic! at the Disco, collaborated with him, and that partnership boosted his standing in the genre. Higgins saw the emo label as both negative and positive. He believed music sometimes has to be dark, because the world is not really a light or happy place.

  His lyrics leaned on heartbreak and fragmented feelings, set against melodic flows. He claimed to say what others were thinking but afraid to voice, such as being vulnerable and hurt. He insisted he wrote only from personal experience and found strength in his pain. Boastful lines and creative references appeared now and then.

  His method was unusual. He said "Lucid Dreams" was the only track on Goodbye & Good Riddance that he actually wrote, and the rest was done impromptu. He often built whole songs in a few minutes by freestyling instead of writing rhymes down. A song usually began when he heard a beat and instantly had an idea. Sometimes he worried he would forget an idea before reaching the studio, so he recorded a voice memo or wrote the song out.

  Few SoundCloud artists of his generation could write soul-baring ballads and also freestyle comfortably over classic hip-hop beats. His freestyles stressed wordplay and honored the tradition. Asked why freestyling was no longer a rite of passage, he said: "Stuff is just changing, that's all. We're moving into a new era of music." He added that it was not necessarily good to forget where it all started.

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• 7. The Final Flight

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  On the 8th of December 2019, Higgins boarded a private Gulfstream jet at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles, bound for Midway International Airport in Chicago. While the flight was in the air, federal agents told law enforcement they suspected guns and drugs were on board. Officers were waiting when it landed. They said they found 70 lb of marijuana. They also said several members of his management team told them he had taken "several unknown pills", including allegedly swallowing multiple Percocet pills while police were on the plane.

  Higgins had a convulsion and a seizure. Two doses of the emergency medication naloxone, known as Narcan, were given because an opioid overdose was suspected. Chicago police were told of a medical emergency at around 2:00 local time. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and pronounced dead. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office did not at first determine a cause. On the 22nd of January 2020, it was announced that he had died from toxic levels of oxycodone and codeine. His funeral was held on the 13th of December 2019 at the Holy Temple Cathedral Church of God in Christ in Harvey, with Ski Mask the Slump God and Young Thug among those attending.

  The account of the pills was disputed. His videographer, Chris Long, said Higgins did not swallow a bunch of pills because police were there, and that he could simply have flushed them if he cared. Federal authorities had already suspected him after a November 2019 incident before he left for Australia, which led to a search of his plane. Rapper Boosie Badazz blamed the pilot and called him a snitch, then threatened violence in an interview. He later recanted, after reflecting on the dangers of young artists suddenly being overwhelmed with money. Uncle Murda said the overdose was not due to clinical addiction.

  Ellie Goulding called him "such a sweet soul" with "so much further to go". Chance the Rapper wrote: "Millions of people, not just in Chicago but around the world are hurting because of this and don't know what to make of it." Lil Nas X, Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi Vert, Drake and the Weeknd also offered condolences. E! Online writer Emily Belfiore noted that "Legends" seemed to predict his own death, since he died only six days after turning twenty-one. Ski Mask the Slump God wrote: "They keep taking my brothers from me", a reference that included XXXTentacion.

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• 8. Music After Death

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  Eminem's album Music to Be Murdered By carried Higgins's first posthumous appearance on the 17th of January 2020. The track "Godzilla" peaked at number three on the Hot 100 and number one on the UK Singles Chart. Five days later, his family and the team at Grade A Productions posted a message on his Instagram thanking fans. They confirmed they would release music he had been working on when he died.

  Guest verses followed quickly. "PTSD", the title track of G Herbo's album, arrived on the 28th of February with Lil Uzi Vert and Chance the Rapper. A remix of YNW Melly's "Suicidal" with Higgins's vocals came out on the 13th of March and climbed to number 20. "No Me Ame", with Rvssian and Anuel AA, followed on the 17th of April, and a computer-generated image of Higgins as an angel appears in its video. His first posthumous single, "Righteous", was released on the 24th of April, recorded at his home studio in Los Angeles. "Go", with the Australian rapper the Kid Laroi, whom Higgins had mentored, came out on the 12th of June.

  On the 4th of May, Ally Lotti announced that the first posthumous album would be called The Outsiders. By the 6th of July the title had changed to Legends Never Die. It was released on the 10th of July 2020 with 21 songs, and it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. In the week ending the 25th of July, five of its songs reached the Hot 100's top ten. "Come & Go" with Marshmello hit number two, "Wishing Well" five, "Conversations" seven, "Life's a Mess" nine, and "Hate the Other Side" ten. Only the Beatles and Drake had done the same. "Smile", with the Weeknd, had earlier leaked online under the title "Sad", with an open verse in the Weeknd's place.

  On the 11th of November 2021, the estate announced Fighting Demons, set for the 10th of December. It was a tie-in for the documentary Juice Wrld: Into the Abyss, which reached HBO Max on the 16th of December 2021 as part of the Music Box series. The film uses archival footage and interviews with friends, family and associates to examine his struggles with mental health and substance abuse. The single "Girl of My Dreams", with Suga of BTS, gave him his first number one on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart. In 2022, DJ Khaled added "Juice Wrld Did" to his album God Did, after Lil Bibby advocated for it.

  On the 4th of February 2023, the estate said his fifth and final studio album, The Party Never Ends, was in active development. It was released on the 29th of November 2024. The next day, a virtual Juice Wrld concert in the video game Fortnite featured Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Ice Spice. The song "Empty Out Your Pockets" premiered there and was added to the album.

  His mother hoped his legacy would help others fight addiction, saying it "knows no boundaries, and its impact goes beyond the person fighting it". She later founded the Live Free 999 Fund to support programs for young and underserved people facing addiction, anxiety and depression. His production team and record label committed to supporting it.

  On the 30th of May 2025, his remix of XXXTentacion's "Whoa (Mind in Awe)", completed before his death, was officially released. On the 6th of March 2026, the single "We Don't Get Along", made with Marshmello, arrived with a music video. It had first leaked in September 2020.

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