The death of Juice Wrld sent shock waves through the music industry and millions of fans across the world. Juice Wrld reached legendary status in the short 2 years of his music career. His music touched fans because of its raw emotional content and his natural skill as an artist. Juice Wrld album drop crashed both Apple Music and Spotify because so many people were trying to listen to it at one time.
The world has been mourning Juice Wrld since his untimely death this past December. Fans have been awaiting his final project eagerly. 'Legends Never Die' takes listeners through a journey celebrating life and examining the turmoil of Juice Wrld. The 21 track project breaks down the emotions and experiences that molded the late artist's identity.
'Legends Never Die' appears to be broken into four acts, taking listeners through the complicated mind and emotions of Juice Wrld. The first act focuses on Juice Wrld's outer image and how he perceives the world around him, beginning with four tracks that focus on the sadness that comes with drug dependency and demons haunting his life. The album starts with an intro featuring Juice Wrld discussing anxiety, sadness, and heartbreak along with his love for his fans.
The first four tracks "Conversations", "Titanic", "Bad Energy" and "Righteous" compose the first act, focusing on the sadness and inner demons of Juice Wrld. "Conversations" introduces listeners to Juice Wrld's inner demons. This track focuses on Juice Wrld's fear and sense of impending doom personified by demons and devils he feels around him constantly, creating his anxiety. The discussion of these fears continues in the following three tracks. "Bad Energy" paints a picture of the pain that comes with drug abuse. The lyrics in Juice Wrld's arsenal are powerful and overwhelming. They create a feeling of heaviness that shows exactly why he left such a strong impact on his fans. "Righteous" delves deeper. Juice goes into further detail about his pain singing "Anxiety the size of a planet, holes in my skull overtime, my hearts over ice." He explores his physical and emotional pain in a very raw way.
The next four tracks examine Juice Wrld's outer image. "Blood On My Jeans" is the first of this set of four and Juice Wrld switches up the vibe of the album at this point. The beat is upbeat, the lyrics are ore arrogant and drug use it rapped about in the laid back, carefree fashion of most mainstream rappers. The placement of this track creates a sense of duality within the album setting up the second act which focuses on Juice Wrld's image, using pop elements that in a way hide his true pain. As you move through the next three tracks, Juice Wrld begins to incorporate more elements of his true self and incorporating more experimental elements.
"Come and Go" is a track featuring Marshmello that incorporates a break around 1 minute into the song. This break changes the song from a ballad into an EDM club banger. The change of mood within the song signifies a release and sense of freedom for Juice Wrld which he explores in the next section of the album. This section focuses on love, fear, pain, and sadness embedded into Juice Wrld's identity. "Wishing Well" embodies this theme. The song has a soft rock melody and the lyrics examine Juice's pain and depression. "This is the part when I tell you I'm fine but I'm lying I just don't want you to worry" Juice admits his problem with addiction and examines the stress that comes with it.
As the album continues, the tone changes into more inspirational sounding tracks and lyrics. "Screw Juice" and "Up, Up & Away" both discuss attempting to slow down his drug abuse. "Up, Up & Away" has an optimistic and happy sound. The optimistic sound continues throughout the last section of the album. "Stay High" is one of the most upbeat sounding tracks on the album. It embodies the feeling Juice was looking to get from drug use. "Can't Die" focuses on the delusion of immortality that comes with a high state and mourning the deaths of others. "Man of The Year" is the last track on the project. It has an amazing mixture of pop and rock elements and sounds similar to classic tracks by the band Green Day. The song is triumphant, positive, honest, and represents the pinnacle of self-realization and expression that Juice Wrld was able to achieve through his music. "Let's raise our hands and sing and dance." This song helps to ease the pain of fans because it is focused on moving forward rather than dwelling on the past.
The album ends with a clip from Juice Wrld's Instagram live. He was joking with fans saying he was calling them from heaven, happy that he made it there. Juice Wrld's impact on hip-hop and his fans' lives will never be forgotten. He is irreplaceable and 'Legends Never Die' shows the world exactly why.
Stream 'Legends Never Die' below:
