Juice WRLD - A Complicated Genius

Jarad Anthony Higgins, aka Juice WRLD, was an influential and critically-acclaimed hip-hop artist, who unfortunately passed away from a drug-induced seizure at the Chicago airport on December 8, 2019, at age 21. He has been my favorite musical artist for a long time now. His lyrics resonate with me exponentially. This post will be focused on his background, his music, his influence on me, and overall why he is my favorite artist, even posthumously.

The future artist was born December 2, 1998 in Chicago, Illinois. His parents divorced when he was only three years old and his father abandoned the family, leaving his mother, Carmela Wallace, to raise Higgins and his brother as a single parent. He had always been a heavy substance user, even beginning to drink lean in sixth grade, and started using Xanax and percocets at around 14 years old. He briefly smoked cigarettes before quitting his last year of high school due to health issues. His strict, religious mother did not allow him to listen to rap music, but did allow him to listen to pop and rock music, and video games like Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater began to introduce him to music such as Billy Idol, Panic! At the Disco, Fall Out Boy, Black Sabbath, Megadeath, and Blink-182. He struggled with anxiety, ADD, substance abuse, and depression in his youth, and music was his creative outlet and way of coping. He was passionate about music and was very talented in that aspect. He learned how to play the piano at four years old, then later taking up drums and guitar, while playing the trumpet for school. He began taking rapping more seriously his sophomore year of high school, when he started to upload his own music he recorded on his cellphone to the platform SoundCloud.

Jarad began rapping under the name JuicetheKidd. “Juice” comes from his admiration for Tupac Shakur and his role in the film Juice. “Wrld” initially had no meaning, he changed it simply because him and his associates believed it would enhance his career. Later, in an interview, he stated it initially had no meaning, but he came to think that it represents “taking over the world”. He started really producing music around age 17. He released his first song on SoundCloud in 2015. His breakout song Lucid Dreams was officially released in May 2018, when Higgins was 19. That song absolutely blew up and to this day, is still his most-streamed song. All Girls Are the Same, another song from his debut album Goodbyes & Good Riddance, is another extremely popular song by Juice WRLD. Bandit, with NBA YoungBoy, Armed and Dangerous, Robbery, Fine China, from his collaborative album with rapper Future, and Flex, by Polo G featuring Juice, are all among his most successful and well-known songs. “Okay Zoe, we get his background, but why do you care so much?”, one may ask me. Let’s dive deeper as to how this artist, who is no longer with us, has impacted me so much.

Juice WRLD’s music is not only a pleasure for my ears and just enjoyable to listen to, but the lyrics to me are simply genius and so wise for someone so young. He definitely had a lot of life left to live, as he was newly 21, but in those 21 years, he dealt with a lot of heartbreak, pain, misfortune, trauma, depression, anxiety, and most prominent of them all– substance abuse. He wrote about his experiences and I have dealt with similar issues. I do not have a substance abuse problem, but I empathize with using negative, unhealthy coping mechanisms. He wrote about real-world issues that positively impacted a lot of his young, vulnerable fans. He wrote about love and heartbreak, violence, internal pain and demons, drug abuse, and more, while also balancing it out with upbeat songs about finding love, money and fortune. But most of his music tends to be generally heavy subject matter. Bad Energy is my favorite song from his album Legends Never Die because the lyrics resonate with me, like “I got voices in my head, they keep me up at night, Said I was okay, but I’m lying, feel that I’m dying, Soul screaming and crying, feel my brain frying”, and the chorus is literally “drain out bad energy”, which is an important moral. Not Enough, is my favorite song from his latest album Fighting Demons. This posthumous album that was released earlier this month, was very well-made, considering he has not been alive for two years. This song’s beat and musical aspect is a kind of style I enjoy, and the lyrics are about fear of abandonment and relapsing, which I struggle with in a different way. I have an intense fear of abandonment as well, and I have a fear of relapsing with self-harm rather than drugs. Flaws and Sins is my favorite song from his sophomore album Death Race for Love. He discusses his suppression of emotions and trauma, and how his partner helped him open up and how he will love her despite her “flaws and sins” and that her “scars are really gorgeous”. It gives his young fans hope that love and support is real and out there for everyone, and that there are people who embrace others’ flaws and unique traits. Used To is my favorite song from Goodbyes & Good Riddance, because the lyrics are about loneliness, heartbreak, and overall pain. Not to mention he expresses the lyrics beautifully and I enjoy the music behind it. Realer N Realer is my favorite song from WRLD ON DRUGS, his collaboration album with Future. Because the flow and pacing is just so smooth and the lyrics aren’t as relatable because it’s mainly about drugs and sex, but I still enjoy the song nonetheless.

I recently watched the HBO documentary about Juice WRLD (Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss). It provided a lot of insight into his music, his background, and a detailed description of his death. In the footage towards the end of his life, you could visibly notice how out of it and how high on drugs he was. It was truly sad to see someone with so much potential at such a young age be mentally in a completely different world. There is a lot of speculation that he actually wanted to die because authorities discovered seventy pounds of marijuana his bags at the airport. So if he had remained alive, he would have been in jail for a long time. Nonetheless, it is tragic and heartbreaking that a talented, young, on-the-rise artist flushed everything down the toilet due to drugs and his addiction to them.

I actually did not discover Higgins’ music until after he passed. I was very occasionally listening to hip-hop when he was around, I was mainly listening to pop, so I did not have an interest at the time. However, when my brother played Hate Me, by Ellie Goulding & Juice WRLD, to sort of incorporate a hip-hop aspect in a pop song, I really fell in love with his voice, so I looked into his music more. I listened to Goodbyes & Good Riddance and Death Race for Love, and other singles or features he has done, and then I started browsing on SoundCloud for unreleased songs by Juice. I just loved his lyrics and style of music. Some of my other favorite songs that I have not mentioned so far, released and unreleased by him, are Feline (with Polo G and Trippie Redd), You Wouldn’t Understand, Who Shot Cupid?, Hearing Me Calling, Won’t Let Go, Long Gone, End of the Road, Same Clothes (unreleased), Electric Chair (unreleased), Eye Contact (unreleased), and Bye Bye (unreleased). Juice WRLD was simply a very talented person, who could freestyle like no other, who suffered a tragic fate.

Higgins has impacted many people, including myself. In the HBO documentary, his mother even stated that he has helped so many of his fans with their anxiety and depression, and has even saved young people from committing suicide. He helps people become more aware that they are not alone in their struggles. With music, the beats and instrumentals are the initial catch. Artists have to make the songs catchy and with a creative flow to retain their audience’s attention. And Juice WRLD’s music has a catchy and unique flow that draws me and his fans to his music. Some of his lyrics are still referenced in pop culture today like “Who knew evil girls had the prettiest face?” from Lucid Dreams, “What’s the 27 club? We ain’t making it past 21” from Legends, and “I don’t need no molly to be savage” from Bandit. That line from Legends sparked conversation as some believe he predicted his own death, as he died six days after his 21st birthday. Another line from that song, “Ain’t nothing like the feeling of uncertainty, the eeriness of silence”, was very insightful and deep to a lot of his fans, including myself.

Another major aspect of Higgins’ life was his girlfriend, Ally Lotti. They were truly so in love, and hearing the story of his death is truly heartbreaking. According to the HBO documentary, Higgins reached out his arms for help while whispering Ally’s name and then fell and proceeded to seize. There was blood coming out of his mouth and nose and his girlfriend and friends witnessed it. They watched him finally succumb to his inevitable fate based on the direction he was headed. Drug addiction and fear overtook his life. Ally was absolutely heartbroken after his death and to this day, still discusses his legacy regularly.

All in all, Jarad Higgins was an extremely talented young man who succumbed to his illness at a very young age. However, in his short career span, he managed to establish such a loyal fanbase and express his insight in such a beautiful way. I genuinely predict his music will be listened to for generations to come. I was personally moved and touched by his music and so were a lot of others, my age especially. I wish he were still around so I could have gone to a performance by him, and so he could have kept creating new music for his fans to enjoy and resonate with. It’s unfortunate what happened to him but there is a moral to take from his story.