Juice WRLD rose quickly as a Top Ten charting artist whose reflective verses rode over tuneful instrumentals that carried traces of Travis Scott and Post Malone. His emotionally charged first album, Goodbye & Good Riddance, issued in 2018 and anchored by the breakout single “Lucid Dreams,” drew from an expansive mix of R&B textures, atmospheric rhythms, and indie-rock-inspired melodies. The momentum from that track propelled his second studio release, A Death Race for Love, to the summit of the Billboard 200 in 2019. At the peak of his commercial success, the 21-year-old artist suffered a fatal medical emergency at Chicago’s Midway International Airport. Three of his singles occupied the Hot 100 while both of his official albums sat inside the Billboard 200 Top 100 at the moment of his passing. Material issued after his death, including the 2024 set The Party Never Ends, continued to register strong chart placements in subsequent years.
Born Jarad Higgins in 1998 in Calumet Park, the musician learned piano, drums, and guitar as a child before shifting toward rap freestyling during high school. Rock music and Chicago drill from Lil Durk and Chief Keef shaped his sound; he initially released music under the name Juice TheKidd, inspired by the haircut that evoked 2Pac’s look in the film Juice. Early recordings circulated online and culminated in the 2017 Juice WRLD 999 EP, crafted by producers Nick Mira and Sidepce and featuring the tracks “Lucid Dreams (Forget Me)” and “All Girls Are the Same.” Those same songs appeared on his Interscope debut Goodbye & Good Riddance, which entered the Billboard 200 at number 15 following its May 2018 release. Higgins dropped the single “Robbery” in January 2019, paving the way for A Death Race for Love that March; the project debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and earned gold certification.
High-profile pairings followed with Ellie Goulding on “Hate Me,” Benny Blanco on “Graduation,” BTS on “All Night,” and YoungBoy Never Broke Again on “Bandit,” the latter becoming his second Top Ten entry alongside “Lucid Dreams.” On December 8, 2019, Higgins experienced a medical emergency at Chicago’s Midway International Airport and died shortly after turning 21. At that time his three singles remained on the Hot 100 and both official albums stayed inside the Billboard 200 Top 100. Subsequent months brought guest verses alongside Halsey, Marshmello, and Eminem. The posthumous collection Legends Never Die arrived in July 2020 and topped the Billboard 200. Fighting Demons surfaced in 2021, containing eighteen tracks with fresh contributions from Justin Bieber, Polo G, Trippie Redd, and BTS member Suga. Additional standalone releases and previously unheard verses surfaced over the following years, among them the 2022 single “In My Head,” “Doomsday” on Lyrical Lemonade’s 2023 compilation All Is Yellow, and appearances on tracks by DJ Khaled and Trippie Redd. A five-year anniversary edition of Goodbye & Good Riddance expanded with extra material in 2023. The fifth and reportedly final studio album, The Party Never Ends, reached stores in November 2024 and featured Offset, Eminem, Fall Out Boy, Benny Blanco, and Nicki Minaj; it debuted at number four on the Billboard charts.
