Album Review: ‘Legends Never Die’ Tells The Disheartening Truth of Juice WRLD’s State of Mind in Last Days

Juice WRLD’s first posthumous album reiterates what we sadly already knew about him.

Written by Thomas Galindo

In March 2019, Juice WRLD’s album Death Race for Love debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and stayed there for two weeks. Juice’s career was only beginning, and the subgenre of emo rap that he helped popularize with his 2018 project Goodbye & Good Riddance spread like wildfire throughout hip-hop with other prominent artists like Trippie Redd, Polo G, and Lil Tecca. But on December 8, 2019, nine months later, Juice WRLD passed. He was 21 years old, on the verge of becoming one of the biggest artists in the genre.

Although several leaked tracks made their way to Soundcloud prior to and after his passing, there was still no word about any new Juice WRLD music for months after his death. Then, Juice WRLD’s team of family members and close friends, such as fellow Chicagoan Lil Bibby, his mother, and his girlfriend, put out a few singles including “Righteous” in April and “Tell Me U Luv Me” featuring Trippie Redd in May. But, there was no sign of an album announcement other than a since-deleted tweet from the creative director of Juice WRLD’s team, Guwac, on July 3rd. In the tweet Guwac stated, “we had a Zoom meeting with the label a few days ago to listen to the final album and after it finished nobody said a word for over 5 minutes. All you heard was sobbing and sniffling… yeah… it’s real. Get ready.”

Then, with very short notice, Legends Never Die was announced on Monday, July 6, and it was to be released on Friday, July 10, four days later. The announcement was accompanied by two new singles, “Come & Go” featuring Marshmello and “Life’s a Mess” featuring Halsey. So, with four already released singles, the rollout was complete, and Juice WRLD fans were left with less than a week to emotionally prepare for a new full-length project.

Legends Never Die is a 55-minute, 21-track album, including an intro, outro, and two non-musical interludes. The album also features fellow Chicagoan Polo G and close friend The Kid Laroi, in addition to Marshmello’s, Halsey’s, and Trippie Redd’s collabs from the pre-released singles.

The album opens with a snippet from a Juice WRLD interview with Rob Markman from Genius. He discusses how he wants to separate his music from cliche, moody songs solely about heartbreak, because God gave him the talent to intertwine themes of mental health into his melody-based music. This intro captures the essence of Legends Never Die, the entire project serving as one big catharsis for Juice WRLD, as if he is in plain sight crying out for help, but the cries are pleasing to the ear. You can see his pain, but you can’t hear the agony, because it is glossed over by satisfying harmonizing and catchy choruses. Of course, this is the type of music that Juice WRLD intended to make. He wanted his young listeners to relate to his struggles of anxiety and depression, but it isn’t palatable or enjoyable if it’s thrown in your face. Countering the project’s upbeat and quick-paced rhythm is a dark, somber lyricism that’ll put a lump in any listener's throat if contextualized with his death from overdose.

From the angsty, sassy vocals in the chorus of “Bad Energy” to the soothing melodies of “Righteous,” “Screw Juice,” and “Life’s a Mess,” Juice WRLD’s ability to craft infectious hooks is incredible. This is especially due to the fact that he freestyled most of his songs as Lil Dicky discussed in an interview on the interlude “The Man, The Myth, The Legend.”

In the first verse on “Wishing Well” Juice spits, “Ring-ring, phone call from depression / You used my past and my memories as a weapon / On the other line, I talk to addiction, huh / Speaking of the devil, all the drugs, I miss them.” All over the album, he talks about feeling trapped in his lifestyle. He knows he shouldn’t be abusing drugs (and isn’t proud that he is), but drugs and money are his only distraction from his deteriorating mental health. Bars like “numb the pain with oxy and Dior, yeah pricey” in “Conversations,” and, “They tell me God watchin' over me, I don't doubt it / But I can see him gettin' tired of me, sinnin' and wildin'” in “Titanic” show his growing guilt towards the life he led, but couldn’t escape for his own sake.

By far the most enjoyable song on the record is “Hate the Other Side,” featuring Polo G and The Kid Laroi, giving listeners a much-needed emotional break from holding back tears to hear this banger. The track begins with a guitar riff and Juice WRLD passionately harmonizing, with the beat then quickly transitioning and the energy immediately picking up. Polo G and Laroi both do an incredible job providing a fun atmosphere along with the upbeat tempo from Marshmello to put the icing on the cake for this bop.

This is not to say the rest of the album isn’t enjoyable, it just comes at a price. “Come & Go” (produced by Marshmello) is practically an EDM song. It’s head-banging, theatrical beat drop, is contrasted with overwhelming themes of paranoia and self-deprecation from Juice about his relationship as heard in lyrics, “I don’t want to ruin this one, this type of love don’t always come and go,” and, “I’m always f-cking up and wrecking sh-t it seems like I perfected it.” “Can’t Die” is an easy track to sing along to, with its relatively animated guitar-infused instrumental, but again contains bleak themes in its lyricism, such as, “Every day it feels like someone new dies, hope the news is a lie,” and, “Lost too many this year / Shed too many of them tears / Now a n---- richer / But there's way too many people missing from the picture.” These lyrics hit all too close to home considering the fact that this is hip-hop’s third commercial posthumous album this year alone, after Mac Miller and Pop Smoke.

To further exemplify the star Juice WRLD was destined to be, this album is projected to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (more than doubling the amount of streams and sales garnered from his previous album), and surely to be in the top three of biggest US sales debuts so far this year. The album also occupied the entire top 15 of the Global Apple Music chart the day after it released and had the biggest first day debut of the year on Spotify and third most ever with over 74 million streams.

This album isn’t sunshine and rainbows, and it isn’t supposed to be. Juice WRLD’s music was never supposed to be a happy escape from reality, but it was supposed to help listeners face their reality, and possibly find hope in it. So, with this new album, while it is a reminder of the pain Juice WRLD endured from anxiety, depression, drug abuse, and his eventual death, it is also a message from him that he cared about all his fans, and ultimately left the impact on the world that he intended. He lived life with purpose, even through the obstacles he faced every day with mental health. The album ends with a message from Juice to his fans from an Instagram Live, in which he says, “I love y’all to death, I couldn’t ask for better fans and supporters.”

Thank you for using your platform to provide inspiration for today’s youth Juice WRLD, you are dearly missed.

Album ReviewsAfterglow ATXJuly 14, 2020thomas galindo, album review