In Memoriam: Rest in Power, Juice WRLD

I’d like to thank the Afterglow staff for letting me be the one to write this tribute. Although music, and hip-hop music especially, means a lot to me, I have never written anything more meaningful than this article.

Written by Thomas Galindo

On Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, I woke up to heartbreaking news. Juice WRLD died of a seizure at the age of 21, six days after his birthday. As I was going through social media to verify this, I noticed the immediate reaction of music fans to this news, two of which stuck out to me. People were either talking about how often we keep losing young artists, or they were reflecting the haunting lyrics in Juice’s own songs, as if he had predicted his own death. These rubbed me the wrong way. Instead of mourning Juice as an artist, or mourning the idea of Juice WRLD, at this time I think it is more important to remember and cherish Juice WRLD the person and what he meant to people.

Juice WRLD came onto the rap scene early in 2018 with his smash record “Lucid Dreams,” accompanied by his debut album Goodbye & Good Riddance. I hadn’t heard anything by Juice WRLD until that summer, and he immediately captured my full attention. His somber mood and themes of heartbreak hit me like a truck. I had never really experienced hip-hop music like this, and little did I know this was just the beginning of the emo rap subgenre, which Juice WRLD would help put in motion. After falling in love with Goodbye & Good Riddance and declaring myself a fan of Juice, I anticipated where he would take his career next. In October 2018, he dropped his album Future & Juice WRLD Present… WRLD ON DRUGS with Future, and he not only held his own on this project, but even surpassed Future’s charisma and energy on a good amount of it. This only made me fall in love with him more.

While I could not directly relate to much of the lyricism and themes portrayed in Juice’s music, I gravitated toward his passion and his versatility. He had undeniable talent. He also had an unmatched ability to reach the youth. Kids shared his heartbreak. Kids felt what he felt. And that only connected the youth to his music more. When his next solo album, Death Race For Love, dropped in March 2019, my admiration of Juice reached its peak. This melodic, moody album was on repeat for months and was my most listened to album of 2019 on my Apple Music Replay. He was also my second most streamed artist this year. I saw him in concert twice, first in Dallas on the “Death Race For Love” Tour, and then in San Antonio at Mala Luna Festival, thanks to Afterglow. At both those shows, it was easy to see how much younger audiences loved and appreciated Juice. People screamed their lungs out at his shows, and he fed off their energy. His songs were easy to sing along to, and they carried a message of resilience through tough circumstances.

Juice WRLD meant a lot to me and to many other kids who related to his struggles. He was one of my favorite artists, both currently and of all time. This was the case for many of his fans as well. He achieved this so quickly, and did so because of his authenticity and his talent. Juice WRLD had his demons, and he wore his emotions on his sleeve. He was a unique, passionate, and hungry artist who wanted to have a positive effect on his fans’ lives more than he wanted to achieve superstardom. He hoped his trials with drug use and heartbreak would teach his fans that a life full of these vices was not desirable. I hope that we, as music fans, can respect him as a person, his hard work, and what he stood for.

Thank you for being a part of my life Juice WRLD, and thank you for being a role model that the youth of today can look up to.

Rest in Peace Jarad Anthony Higgins, better known as Juice WRLD.

Afterglow ATXDecember 9, 2019