Remembering Soundcloud-Rap Pioneer Juice WRLD, Who We Lost This Week in 2019

It has been six years since we lost Juice WRLD. The emo and SoundCloud rap pioneer died in 2019 at the age of 21.

The young rap star was born Jarad Anthony Higgins in Chicago in 1998. He grew up in and around the city, idolizing both hip-hop and rock/emo stars, such as local heroes Fall Out Boy. In high school, around 2015, he began to experiment with music. This led him to SoundCloud, a music streaming service tailored to helping independent artists get their music out.

Juice WRLD’s biggest breakout moment came in 2017 when he dropped “Lucid Dreams”. To this day, the song remains his biggest hit.

Juice Wrld’s “Lucid Dreams” has garnered more than three billion streams on Spotify alone.

While he was alive, Juice WRLD released two albums: Goodbye & Good Riddance in 2018 and Death Race for Love in 2019. Over the years, he worked with other major artists, including Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, and Ellie Goulding.

Sadly, Juice WRLD died on December 8, 2019. According to reports, he was on a flight scheduled to land at Midway International Airport in Chicago. The plane was to be met by law enforcement, who’d reportedly been tipped off that he was in possession of drugs.

While still on the plane, Juice WRLD was said to have consumed “several unknown pills.” This caused him to suffer a seizure. Juice WRLD was transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn for medical care. Sadly, this is where he was pronounced dead. His cause of death was ruled as “acute oxycodone and codeine intoxication.”

Around the time of his death, there had been allegations that Juice WRLD took the pills to hide them from the police. However, this had been widely disputed by those closest to him. Instead, most have noted that he simply struggled with addiction.

“J [Jarad] did not swallow a bunch of pills because the police were at the airport,” videographer and friend Chris Long wrote on a post on X/Twitter. “We gave no f***s about them being there. He could have flushed them down the toilet if he cared.”

In the years following his death, three more Juice WRLD albums have been released: Legends Never Die (2020), Fighting Demons (2021), and The Party Never Ends (2024). He remains one of the most celebrated artists of his generation.