Chicago rapper Jared Higgins, known as Juice Wrld, died this weekend at Midway airport just a few days after his twenty-first birthday. Police had stopped the rapper to search his luggage for drugs and illegal weapons and during the search Higgins suffered from a seizure and cardiac arrest. The officers found 41 bags of marijuana, six bottles of prescription codeine, three pistols, an ammunition magazine and metal-piercing bullets in the rapper's luggage. Higgins has been very open about his struggle with drug use in both his music and in various interviews, and it's had not to wonder if there was a connection between this and his untimely, tragic death. Investigation into the direct cause of his death will include a toxicology screening for drugs. Since his death there has been an outpouring of posts on social media in remembrance of young rapper who touched the hearts of so many individuals.
Higgins's music originally blew up on Soundcloud, specifically his song "Lucid Dreams," a mournful yet catchy song that exemplified Higgins's style of blending singing with rap. Higgins's music was an unusual blend of pop-punk, emo influenced rap that pushed hip-hop towards the more raw expression of emotion and pain that it has been missing. Rappers XXXTentacion and Lil Peep created music similar to this style, although each artist had their own unique take on this new movement of music. Higgins released a song called "Legends," as a tribute to these two rappers's own untimely deaths last year. The lyrics have an eery quality to them now: "What's the 27 Club? / We ain't making it past 21," "They tell me I'ma be a legend / I don't want that title now / 'Cause all the legends seem to die out / What the fuck is this 'bout?"
Higgins did not focus his music around only the usual topic of heartbreak, but also connected with his fans through his ability to talk, sing, and rap plainly about painful internal struggles. He made his fans feel less alone in issues of depression, anxiety and substance abuse. He is remembered by his family as a gentle, good kid. His influence on the hip-hop world was both a unique and positive one, and hopefully the legacy that he, Lil Peep, and XXXTentacion left behind will not be forgotten. His death is also an opportunity to consider the ways in which the music industry can do more to support these artists that bare their souls to the world in order to bring in money for their management. While drugs are prevalent in this environment, there is surely more that can be done to help these young people contend with the world of stardom that they are pushed suddenly into.
