Juice WRLD, one of this year's brightest hip-hop stars, has died suddenly at the age of 21, according to reports.
TMZ broke the news on Sunday morning (Dec. 8) that Juice WRLD, a.k.a. Jarad Anthony Higgins, had arrived at Chicago's Midway Airport following a flight from Los Angeles and suffered a seizure in the terminal. He was reportedly alive when paramedics arrived on the scene, but was pronounced dead at a local hospital shortly thereafter.
The Chicago MC first gained traction with the single “All Girls Are The Same” in early 2018 before his follow-up single, the Police-sampling “Lucid Dreams,” became one of the biggest hits of that year, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The smash single helped Juice WRLD win the top new artist trophy at the Billboard Music Awards in 2019. "Lucid Dreams" interpolates Sting's 1993 track "Shape of My Heart."
He continued collecting hits with his album Death Race for Love, which became his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart earlier this year. In addition to working with artists ranging from Lil Uzi Vert to Ellie Goulding to BTS, Juice WRLD released a collaborative album with Future, Wrld on Drugs, last year.
His name changed from JuicetheKidd, a name inspired by his affection for rapper Tupac Shakur and his part in the film Juice, to Juice Wrld because it "represents taking over the world."
“I want to be that person that leads people out of the place they’re at,” Juice WRLD told Billboard in a cover story from earlier this year. “And in the process, maybe I’ll find the key to get out of the place that I’m at. The low places I may wander into or get trapped in.”