Juice WRLD Essentials

Jarad Higgins grew up freestyling in the Chicago suburbs before developing his genre-blending take on emo rap: Auto-Tuned vocals, hints of pop punk and beats inspired by Chicago drill. Released under the 2Pac-inspired stage name Juice WRLD, his 2018 singles “All Girls Are the Same” and “Lucid Dreams” plumbed regret and heartbreak with alarming honesty. The same year’s debut album Goodbye & Good Riddance continued on that path, chronicling his excessive drug use and fears about dying young on “Lean Wit Me”. Even more poignant was the follow-up single “Legends”, which lamented the loss of fellow rappers Lil Peep and XXXTENTACION and preceded Higgins’ own tragic passing in December 2019 at age 21. His posthumous 2020 album Legends Never Die featured moving collabs with The Weeknd (“Smile”), Halsey (“Life’s a Mess”) and The Kid LAROI (“Hate the Other Side”). The solo track “Righteous” also cut deep with its prophetic line, “We may die this evening”. The sheer bank of tracks that Higgins recorded before his death has allowed for many other releases since, including 2021’s Justin Bieber-assisted “Wandered to LA” and 2023’s jangly yet melancholy “The Light”. Each new offering shows off a bit more of the rapper’s personality, while underscoring a nagging sense of how much more he could have accomplished.