Since he blew up in late 2018 with his hit single “Lucid Dreams”, Juice WRLD seemed to be one of the most prominent young figures in hip hop. On December 8th, 2019, everything changed as the only 21 year old rapper passed away due to a supposed seizure. Today, Juice’s team has given fans his last living words in “Legends Never Die“. Due to the recent success of Pop Smoke’s “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” and Mac Miller’s “Circles”, I have hope this lp will continue the trend of well done posthumous releases.
When it comes to Juice’s performance, he builds upon the sound from his previous works. Tracks like “Conversations” and “Bad Energy” do an exceptional job of displaying the emo-drug rap style, which he normalized. While some songs like “Blood On My Jeans” and “I Want It” could have been left off, they don’t feel rushed like a lot of tracks on releases like these tend to be. My least favorite cuts on the entire record are “Life’s a Mess” with Halsey and “Come & Go” featuring Marshemllo as they both feel like generic pop ballads. On the positive side, the tracks “Tell Me U Luv Me” with Trippie Redd and “Hate the Other Side” with Polo G and Kid LAROI are great as Juice shines just as much as his guest do. One thing I love about this record is that we see Juice push his artistic boundaries forward. There are cuts where he raps more like on “Stay High”, and we even see him dive into rock on “Man of the Year”. Skits like “Anxiety” and “Juice WRLD Speaks from Heaven” make this record even more emotional and sentimental. While it definitely has its flaws, Juice WRLD manages to shine on Legends Never Die.
Sonically, the album does a solid job of complementing Juice’s final words. The instrumentals on “Conversations” and “Fighting Demons” do a splendid of setting the mood for their respective tracks while other songs, including “Titanic” and “Blood On My Jeans”, contain scores which don’t fit Juice’s vibe. With that being said, none of the beats stick out to me as their pretty much just straightforward gloomy trap beats. This was something I was disappointed by as his previous works contained pretty intuitive soundtracks. While the production on the record doesn’t blow me away by any means, it is just extremely average for the most part.
In conclusion, Legends Never Die is a heartfelt and enjoyable representation of everything Juice WRLD stood for. A lot of the cuts are touching and innovative, but with its 21 song tracklist, the album is held down by its fair share of filler. Looking at the big picture, I don’t think this record will be what the Chicago mc will be remembered through but, it is still a formidable tribute for anyone wanting to listen.
Rating: 5.5/10
