For the second consecutive week there will be a big named posthumous album released. Last week, New York’s ‘Pop Smoke released Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon’, an album that gained immediate success as expected. The album did a remarkable 250k sales first week. Friday, the late Juice WRLD’s team released his first project since his sudden death in December of last year. Now this album did not have the anticipation that Pop Smoke’s did, but it’s not like people weren’t waiting for Juice WRLD music. It was known that the Chicago rapper had a deep arsenal of music in the vault since at least 2017, so the Juice WRLD fans had a lot to look forward to in this album. Legends Never Die is finally here.
Legends Never Die is 15-tracks long, and it includes four singles that were released prior to the album’s release. The lead single is “Righteous”, the first solo track released after Juice’s death. It was followed by “Tell Me U Luv Me” with Trippie Redd, “Life’s a Mess” with Halsey, and “Come and Go” with Marshmello. Juice’s team did a good thing with keeping the features minimal, and not forcing songs with verses from big named artists. Which is a frequent trend with a lot of posthumous albums. After the introduction track, the album starts off with a bang with “Conversations”, the track is produced by DJ Scheme & Ronny J. The track includes lyrics about devil/demons, his struggles with anxiety & depression, and his drug addictions. All are frequent topics in Juice’s music, and continue along with the rest of the album. On the Take a Daytrip produced “Bad Energy”, Juice again talks about coping with paranoia, and his drug addictions. The track was previewed on Juice’s Instagram Live back in June of 2019. “Blood on My Jeans” is produced by 808 Mafia’s Max Lord & Gezin. The track was supposed to include a version with Atlanta’s Gunna, but his verse was removed prior to the album release. “Hate the Other Side” is the second Juice WRLD & Marshmello track on the album, and it features a verse from fellow Chicago Native, Polo. It also features Australian rapper, The Kid LAROI, an artist who Juice mentored over the final year of his life. There are two official interludes on the album, but the one that stands out is “The Man, the Myth, the Legend”, it features interview clips with artists such as Young Thug, Eminem, Lil Dicky, and J. Cole giving Juice high praise after his death. The Skrillex produced “Man of The Year” is a standout track, and the proper way to end the album musically.
Legends Never Die is the exclamation point on the emo-rap phenomenon to the mainstream crowd. Lil Bibby, Juice’s friend & a person who took control in this album being released, took to Twitter to say l, “Damn it seem like y’all really want more songs on the album so ima give y’all what y’all want cuz I know juice would probably do the same. I see the list and recommendations of the songs y’all want too so if we go crazy on the first week then ima give y’all a deluxe too. Deal?” We know that Juice has an abundance of music in the vault, so we can expect even more fire for the deluxe. Juice may be one of the only rappers who can put out a second quality posthumous album. So we’ll have something to look forward to.
Legends Never Die is out now on all streaming platforms.
