It's been around two and a half years since Juice WRLD left us, and his legacy will live forever.
Hailed from Illinois, the melodic rapper, whose real name was Jarad Anthony Higgins, rose to fame thanks to his genre-bending approach to music as emo rap became one of the fastest-growing subgenres of the 2010s. Not only did he sing for the wounded and the broken-hearted, but he was also a prolific freestyler with unlimited vocabularies at his disposal.
Discography-wise, Juice was responsible for some of the biggest songs of the 2010s. His most-known diamond-certified single, "Lucid Dream," propelled him into a bona fide artist with unique sound back in 2018. In his own words, he described the goal of his music as "to help people through their situations and tell them about some of my own. It's all genuine, so I think that's what adds to it."
With that being said, we're taking a look back at some milestones of the bright young man's short-lived career, and the potential of what he could have become.
8 Juice WRLD Released His First-Ever Music On SoundCloud In 2015
Before he was Juice WRLD, Jarad Anthony Higgins was "JuicetheKidd," posting snippets of his songs online while attending Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Chicago. He released his first-ever song, "Forever," on SoundCloud in 2015 when he was 17.
While he was already racking up the respect from the rap game by the time of his passing, he wasn't actually allowed to listen to hip-hop by his conservative mother back then.
7 At The Same Time, Juice WRLD Was Also Struggling With Substance Abuse
At the same time, young Juice was already struggling with substance abuse. By the time the rapper was 15, he began using Xanax and Percocet, drank lean, and slowly developed an addiction to them. Then, the story arc of his music would develop around his battle with those prescription drugs and everything he was going through.
"They’re young, so they don’t see things the way we would see it," Juice's mother, Carmela, opened up during a segment of The Tamron Hall Show in January 2022. She added, "But I think that he just didn’t have the people in place to tell him to stop or to know [what was wrong]. He just didn’t have that support system in place."
6 Juice WRLD's Three-Song EP Was Discovered By Cole Bennett In 2017
After making quite a buzz in the indie scene and releasing one track after another, Juice released his three-song EP titled Nothings Different online. The project ended up being discovered by Lyrical Lemonade's Director of Operations Elliot Montanez who later covered the album on the hip-hop blog. Since then, Juice's popularity seemed to take off, especially with the accompanying music video for its lead single "All Girls Are The Same."
5 Juice WRLD Eventually Signed To Interscope Records In 2018 For $3 Million
As the video racked up millions of views, Juice arrived in Interscope Records under a splashy arrival worth $3 million. It was a big amount to spend on an "unproven" artist who emerged out of nowhere on SoundCloud and had never performed a big stage - except for one time he played at a party for his high school mates and collected a grand total of $100. He eventually released his debut triple-platinum album, Goodbye & Good Riddance, in May of the same year with a cameo vocal appearance from fellow rapper Lil Uzi Vert.
Did Interscope make the right gamble? According to its executive VP Joie Manda, yes. He told Billboard, "When we first heard the music, we knew it was going to be massive. And that’s what ended up happening."
4 Juice WRLD Linked Up With Future For A Collab EP In The Same Year
In the same year, Juice linked up with his musical hero, Future, for a collaborative mixtape titled Wrld on Drugs. The 49-minute trip of psychedelic pop-trap boasts features from hip-hop's favorite heavy hitters like Young Thug, Lil Wayne, Gunna, Nicki Minaj, and more. "Free Chine," its first-ever single, led the commercial mixtape to debut at number two on the Billboard 200, moving over 98,000 album-equivalent units.
3 Juice WRLD's Last & Final Album, 'Death Race For Love,' Arrived A Few Months Before His Passing
A year after that, Juice's sophomore and final album during his lifetime, Death Race for Love, arrived in March. The album solidified Juice's status as hip-hop's most exciting rising star at the time, boasting singles like "Robbery," "Hear Me Calling," and "Bandit." Death Rate for Love debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart and moved over 165,000 album-equivalent units, and it was an emotional goodbye and a send-off to what could have been a perfect career from a legendary talent.
2 Later On, Eminem Immortalized Juice WRLD In His 'Music To Be Murdered By' Album
Juice eventually passed away a few months after the album's release in December 2019. A few weeks later, another musical hero of the rapper, Eminem, released his single "Godzilla" from his surprise drop Music to Be Murdered By in January 2020, which features Juice's vocals in the chorus. It was Juice's first-ever posthumous release, and it immortalizes his status.
"That kid was so talented," the Rap God paid his tribute to the late talent during an interview with Kxng Crooked for the Crooked Corner series, adding, "To be so young, he mastered that so f—ing quickly. His potential was so off the charts.'
1 Juice WRLD's Posthumous Albums Were Released In 2020 & 2021
Since then, Juice's estate keeps releasing his music after his death. His second posthumous release, G Herbo-featured "PTSD," arrived later in February. His first posthumous album, Legends Never Die, was released in the summer of that year. It moved over 497,000 album-equivalent units within the first week and was followed by a tie-in album Fighting Demons a year later ahead of his HBO documentary Into the Abyss.
