Juice WRLD’s first posthumous record is out, and the emotions have boiled right back up to the surface.
Last December, rapper Juice WRLD celebrated his 21st birthday. The hip-hop and music world on a whole was devastated, to say the least, when reports of the “Lucid Dreams” hitmaker’s death came just a week later. While some fans have still not come to terms with his passing, his estate has promised to deliver his unreleased music over time.
Today marks Juice WRLD’s first posthumous release with a single called “Righteous.” The song talks about mental illness, substance abuse, and death as it documents the rapper’s constant struggles with codeine and pills, anxiety, and depression while he navigated the waves of his new promising career.
“All white Gucci suit, I’m feeling righteous/I know that the truth is hard to digest/Five or six pills in my right hand/Codeine runneth over on my nightstand/Takin’ medicine to fix all of the damage/My anxiety the size of a planet/Holes in my skull, over time/My heart’s over ice,” Juice WRLD sings in a melancholy tone. “Over ice, I’m freezing/Beautiful eyes, deceiving/We may die this evening/Coughing, wheezing, bleeding”
The official music video for the song was also released today, and it features some never before seen footage of Juice WRLD. In the visuals, the late rapper is seen in various fast-moving clips with other artists like Young Thug, J. Cole, Trippie Redd, and more. There is one scene where he was recorded backstage at one of his shows, making out with his ex-girlfriend Ally Lotti. The video ends with a special animation by Tristan Zammit that depicts the story of Juice fighting his demons.
According to Juice WRLD’s estate in a statement earlier this year, “Choosing how to share his upcoming music with the world has been no easy feat” but we’re all just glad that we finally get to hear some. Check out “Righteous” by Juice WRLD now.
