Five years ago, the music world lost Juice WRLD. The young Chicago artist’s music sounded nothing like anything coming from the city. He wasn’t making drill music like G Herbo or Chief Keef; he went the opposite direction. Juice WRLD excelled at venting about his problems through harmonies and melodies, and he quickly skyrocketed to the top of hip-hop. He battled many demons and vices, and wasn’t ashamed to tell the world. His authenticity is arguably why he was so relatable and became so popular. On what would have been his 26th birthday, here are his top five deep cuts:
5. “Black & White” Juice WRLD shows his songwriting ability is up there with the best. On “Black & White” it’s another drug-bender song, but he puts a creative spin on it. He raps about doing “Black” drugs like lean with the white boys and doing “White” drugs like cocaine with all the Black kids. It’s a song you just want to party to, and that’s something Juice WRLD never stopped doing.
4. “Candles” This cut from his debut mixtape “Goodbye & Good Riddance” is the epitome of Juice WRLD. He doesn’t really rap because his music is more of a collection of him harmonizing. On “Candles” Juice sings about this toxic love that he is ready to move on from. But mid-chorus he realizes he doesn’t know if he’s hurt or just battling his insecurities.
3. “Hear Me Calling” The first single from “Death Race for Love” is one of Juice WRLD‘s biggest songs and launched him into superstardom. “Hear Me Calling” finds Juice singing about why his girl won’t answer the phone. Throughout the song, he sings about all the reasons why he’s in love with her over a Caribbean pop beat.
2. “Rider” “Rider” is one of the most overlooked Juice tracks because not many people have heard it. The song is buried at the bottom of “Death Race for Love” but is one of the best songs on the entire project. On “Rider,” Juice sings about his struggles to find the girl who will ride with him through everything. Maybe it’s the drugs or his paranoia, he doesn’t really care – he just wants to find the girl who will see through all that.
1. “Wasted” “Wasted” was the song that made Juice WRLD my favorite artist before he passed. This song is about getting wasted on drugs, and the hard ones too. Juice sings about his love for drugs and his love for the girl who does them with him. Whether they are doing lines of coke, popping Percocets or sipping lean, Juice just wants to get wasted and he doesn’t care what combination gets him there. By the end of the song, Juice comes to the realization he’s doing drugs to run away from his demons, but those same demons reemerge in his girl, so there is no true escaping them.
