Juice WRLD, the rapper who fused SoundCloud rap with anxious pop-punk energy, has died. He was 21.
TMZ reports the MC, born Jarad A. Higgins, appeared to suffer a seizure after his flight landed at Chicago’s Midway Airport on Sunday morning.
He was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead soon after.
Chicago Police Department spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told the Chicago Sun-Times there are “no signs of foul play evident to officers.”
His cause of death was not immediately apparent, and Guglielmi said it is yet to be determined if the rapper’s death was linked to a “narcotics issue”.
An autopsy is scheduled for today.
After famously recording music directly onto his phone in 2015, Juice WRLD established his sound on 2017 EP 9 9 9.
Standout track Lucid Dreams laid booming percussion under a guitar line from Sting‘s Shape Of My Heart.
The tune’s unique vocal delivery – halfway between Blink-182 founder Tom DeLonge and Lil Yachty – propelled Lucid Dreams to #2 on the US Billboard singles chart.
Two albums followed, with the most recent, Death Race For Love, dropping in March of this year.
Juice WRLD’s lyrics often dealt with insecurity, depression, and substance abuse issues.
His 2018 EP Too Soon… mourned the loss of contemporaries Lil Peep and XXXTentacion, whose work covered similar themes.
Fans have pointed out a harrowing passage from Juice WRLD’s tribute track Legends:
What’s the 27 Club?
We ain’t making it past 21
I been going through paranoia
So I always gotta keep a gun
Damn, that’s the world we live in now
Yeah, hold on, just hear me out
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?
In late November, Juice WRLD performed at Spilt Milk in Ballarat and Canberra, along with a string of headlining performances.
