Biography:

Jarad Anthony Higgins (December 2, 1998 – December 8, 2019), known professionally as Juice Wrld (pronounced “juice world”; stylized as Juice WRLD), was an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. Throughout his career of four years, he was a leading figure in the emo rap and SoundCloud rap genres which garnered mainstream attention during the mid-to-late 2010s.^[5][6] His stage name, which he stated represents “taking over the world”, was derived from the crime thriller film Juice (1992).^[7]

Higgins began his career as an independent artist in 2015 and signed a recording contract with Grade A Productions and Interscope Records in 2017. He gained recognition with the diamond-certified single “Lucid Dreams“, which peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was included on his triple platinum debut album Goodbye & Good Riddance (2018), alongside the singles “All Girls Are the Same“, “Lean wit Me“, “Wasted“, and “Armed and Dangerous“, all of which charted on the Hot 100. He then collaborated with Future on the mixtape Wrld on Drugs (2018), and released his second album, Death Race for Love, in 2019; it contained the hit single “Robbery” and became Higgins’ first number one debut on the US Billboard 200.

Higgins died of a drug overdose on December 8, 2019. His first posthumous album, Legends Never Die (2020), matched chart records for most successful posthumous debut and for most U.S. top-ten entries from one album, while the single “Come & Go” (with Marshmello) became Higgins’ second song to reach number two on the Hot 100. His second posthumous album, Fighting Demons, was released in 2021 alongside the documentary film Juice Wrld: Into the Abyss and contained the US top 20 single “Already Dead“.

Early life

Jarad Anthony Higgins was born on December 2, 1998, in Chicago, Illinois.^[8] He grew up in the South Suburbs spending his childhood in Calumet Park. He then later moved to Homewood,^[9] where he attended Homewood-Flossmoor High School and graduated in 2017.^[10] His parents divorced when he was three years old,^[11] and his father left, leaving his mother to raise him and an older brother as a single parent.^[12] Higgins’ father died in June 2019.^[13] Higgins’ mother was very religious and conservative, and did not let him listen to hip hop. He was allowed to listen to rock and pop music, however, being introduced to artists including Billy Idol, Blink-182, Black Sabbath, Fall Out Boy, Megadeth and Panic! at the Disco through video games such as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Guitar Hero.^[14][7]

Higgins was a heavy drug user during his childhood and teens. He began drinking lean in sixth grade and using Percocet and Xanax in 2013. Higgins additionally smoked cigarettes before quitting in his last year of high school because of health issues.^[15]

He learned to play the piano at four years old, having been inspired by his mother, Carmella Wallace, who later began paying for lessons. He then took up the guitar and drums while also playing the trumpet for band class.^[15] In his sophomore year of high school, he began posting songs to SoundCloud which he recorded on his smartphone.^[16] Around this time, Higgins began to take rapping more seriously.^[17][18]

Career

2015–2017: Beginnings, record deal, and early projects

Higgins developed as an artist in his first year of high school. His first track, “Forever”, was released on SoundCloud in 2015 under the name JuicetheKidd. Higgins recorded most of his first tracks on a cellphone, uploading them to SoundCloud in his sophomore year.^[16] He changed his name from JuicetheKidd, a name inspired by his affection for rapper Tupac Shakur’s role in the film Juice, to Juice Wrld because he and his associates believed the change would benefit his career. In an interview with the Atlanta radio station WHTA, Higgins revealed that the latter part of his stage name initially had no meaning but that he came to think it “represents taking over the world”.^[7] “Too Much Cash”, Higgins’ first track to be produced by frequent collaborator Nick Mira, was released in 2017.^[19] While releasing projects and songs on SoundCloud, Higgins worked in a factory but was dissatisfied with the job; he was fired within two weeks.^[20] After joining the internet collective Internet Money, Higgins released his debut full-length EP, 9 9 9, on June 15, 2017, with the song “Lucid Dreams” breaking out and growing his following.^[21][18] Higgins also briefly performed under the name Juice in early 2017.^[22]

In mid-2017, he received attention from artists such as Waka Flocka Flame and Southside, as well as fellow Chicago artists G Herbo and Lil Bibby. He subsequently signed with Lil Bibby’s co-owned record label, Grade A Productions.^[23][24]

2017–2018: Goodbye & Good Riddance and WRLD Domination Tour

In December 2017, Higgins released the three-song EP Nothings Different. The project was covered by the hip-hop blog Lyrical Lemonade,^[25] with Higgins’ track “All Girls Are the Same” gaining popularity through the blog post. An accompanying Cole Bennett-directed music video was released in February 2018.^[21] Following the video’s release, Interscope Records signed Higgins for $3 million^[26] and a remix featuring Lil Yachty was previewed but never officially released.^[27] “All Girls Are the Same” was critically acclaimed, receiving a Best New Music designation from Pitchfork.^[28] It was released as a single in April. “All Girls Are the Same” and “Lucid Dreams” were Higgins’ first entries on any Billboard chart, debuting on the Hot 100 at numbers 92 and 74, respectively.^[29][30]

On May 4, 2018, “Lucid Dreams” was officially released as a single and accompanied by a Cole Bennett-directed music video, similarly to “All Girls Are the Same”.^[31] It peaked at number two on the Hot 100^[32] and quickly became one of the most streamed songs of 2018;^[16] it remains his most-streamed song, reaching over one billion streams on Spotify by January 2020.^[24] “Lucid Dreams” was followed by “Lean Wit Me” on May 22, which peaked at number 68 on the Hot 100;^[33] Higgins’ debut full-length album, Goodbye & Good Riddance, which included his three previous singles, released the following day.^[34] This album gained him much recognition and praise, along with cementing him as a rising star in the US.^[35] On June 19, he released a two-song EP titled Too Soon.. in remembrance of, and dedicated to, deceased rappers Lil Peep and XXXTentacion. Lil Peep died of an overdose in 2017 and XXXTentacion was murdered on June 18, 2018, one day before the project was released.^[36] Higgins said that he and XXXTentacion were friends and that they would have FaceTime calls together, revealing that their last conversation was about meeting up. The cover of the Too Soon.. EP is a screenshot of a conversation between Higgins and XXXTentacion.^[37] The song “Legends” from the EP debuted at number 65 on the Hot 100^[38] and peaked at number 29 over a year later following Higgins’ death.^[39]

“Wasted” featuring Lil Uzi Vert was released on July 10; it was Higgins’ first single featuring a collaboration and the only song on Goodbye & Good Riddance with a featured guest. It debuted at number 68 on the Hot 100 and peaked at 67 in its second week on the chart.^[40] On July 11, Higgins announced that he was working on his next album.^[41] On July 20, Higgins announced his first tour, WRLD Domination, with additional acts YBN Cordae and Lil Mosey.^[42] On July 25, Higgins’ producer Danny Wolf released the official version of “Motions” on SoundCloud following a series of leaks.^[43]

Credits:

Wikipedia