Juice WRLD

Background

Jarad Anthony Higgins, professionally known as Juice WRLD, was born on December 2, 1998, in Chicago, Illinois. Higgins spent his childhood years in Calumet Park and later his high school years in Homewood. His parents separated when he was three years old, leaving Higgins to live with his older brother and mother. Higgins’ taste in a mixture of hip-hop and rock music began around this time. It was known that his mother raised him conservatively, not allowing him to listen to hip hop. He was, however, allowed to listen to rock and pop songs, resulting in him taking an interest in artists including Blink-182, Black Sabbath, Fall Out Boy, and other bands. At a young age, Higgins learned to play instruments including piano, guitar, drums, and trumpet. In his sophomore year, he also began putting out songs to SoundCloud and started taking music seriously.

Juice kicked off his career as an independent artist putting out songs online before he signed a recording contract with Grade A Productions and Interscope Record. After releasing several bodies of work, one of his tracks called ‘Lucid Dreams’ went viral, peaking at number two on the U.S. Billboard 100. In 2017, he released Juice WRLD 999 E.P. which was produced by Nick Mira and Sidepce. He then released his debut album “Goodbye & Good Riddance” which contained singles including ‘All Girls Are the Same’ and ‘Lean Wit Me.’ At this point, Higgins gained high popularity and was even dubbed one of the pioneers of the emo-rap genre. In 2019, his single ‘Robbery’ was released as part of the rollout of his second album “Death Race For Love.” Commercially, the album performed well as it peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold.

Unfortunately, Higgins had to cut his journey in rap stardom short as he died from a drug overdose just days after he turned 21 (2019). Several months after his passing and with the approval of his estate, his label released his posthumous album, “Legends Never Die,” which managed to peak on the Billboard 200 (2020). Another posthumous project called “Fighting Demons” was released which featured high-profile artists including Justin Bieber and Suga from B.T.S. (2021).