Juice WRLD - Legends Never Die
Jul 10, 2020
70
Legends Never Die.

Chicago's own Juice WRLD started his rap career at the peak of Soundcloud's influence, dropping project after project filled to the brim with devisive sad boy anthems with an emo trap rap flair, the most successful of which was his debut, GB&GR. I wasn't a big fan of his stuff from 2018 and prior, but I was extremely happy to see his growth on his next project, Death Race for Love, a 22-track odyssey that continues to be entertaining to this day. With this new era instead of putting out emo music with a trap rap flair it's now moreso trap rap with an emo flair. This is the era where he dropped his two hour-long freestyles, which I emplore you to check out.

Unfortunately, as we all know, Juice passed away on December 8th, 2019, six days after his 21st birthday, and I was really taken aback by it. Juice WRLD was really the only new age rap artist that I was a fan of before he passed, whereas with, say, X, I started to check out his stuff after he passed away. Every time I tried to connect to Mac Miller's Good News I struggled because I had no connection to his music. I literally found out about Mac because of his passing.

But where X flopped about with his posthumous releases, Juice WRLD's were not only fantastic releases, but he took another giant leap in character growth, even beyond the grave. The singles Righteous and Life's a Mess are the best Juice WRLD songs period, the former of which was my favorite single of the year for a good chunk of it, and the latter is now my favorite single of the year. Both songs are genuinely beautiful and pull at your heartstrings super hard considering his passing. The things he says Righteous are chilling to my core. There was no way I would've predicted that this is the music Juice would be making after hearing Lucid Dreams.

My excitement for Legends Never Die faltered a bit these past few days, first when I heard that Lil Bibby added six new songs to this project three days before it released. How about you don't that, you fuckin' idiot. And when I woke up this morning I found that Trippie Redd song on here, which is so infuriating. Juice's flow on here is so great, but that Trippie chorus is just straight garbage. It sounds so bad.

But, Legends Never Die is here. The only question that matters is, of course, is it good?

And the answer to that is yes. Fuuuck yes.

Legends Never Die is essentially a mellow version of Death Race for Love. Nearly an hour of mellow Juice WRLD cuts from the vault, with a few bangers thrown into the mix here and there. And unfortunately, the thing is, if you aren't a fan of Juice WRLD you are not going to enjoy this project. This isn't an hour of god-tier material, there's only around three songs here that I would consider god-tier Juice material, those being Righteous, Life's a Mess, and Man of the Year. If you didn't fuck with Death Race for Love you aren't going to fuck with this.

Now discussing the actual music here, first of, the music on Legends Never Die sounds completely finished, with little to no tampering from the estate and label. There are very few features here, and the times there are features make sense, Halsey and Juice seemed to have a pretty deep friendship and have collaborated before, and Trippie Redd, Marshmello, Polo G, and The Kid Laroi have collaborated numerous times before. There are no times where Juice's input is absent, or a song that could've used another verse. Maybe Hate the Other Side but that track is fire so I could care less. Every song on here sounds totally finished.

Juice WRLD himself is as great as he was when he was still with us, of course I prefer the back to back to back bangers of Death Race for Love but the mellower stuff is still an improvement from the material off of GB&GR. Flows are catchy, wordplay is on point, and the choruses pop. And of course a ton of Juice's bars are incredibly chilling considering his passing. The production is a bit inconsistent, sometimes it's jaw-droppingly good but other times it fades into background. A ton of tracks here end with a super elegant outro, complete with strings as far as the eye can see, which makes stomaching these mediocre tracks a lot easier. Even that Trippie song gets one too.

LND's biggest problem really is that it's just inconsistent. DRFL's long runtime didn't make much of an impact because of the variety, we go from Empty to Flaws and Sins to Out My Way all in the span of fourty or so minutes. Whereas on LND most songs are pretty similar in tone, with bangers being the exception rather than being a regular thing. The interludes are also a bit spotty, I do enjoy the one that features other iconic rappers speaking on how great Juice was, and the closer was really cute. But the ones that feature Juice just talking are kinda unnecessary. They may be nice for other people but I just don't feel the need to include them.

Overall, Legends Never Die was great. My expectations for this thing were so fucking high, and they were pretty much met. As I said before, if you weren't feeling any of Juice's previous works this isn't going to do it for you, but I did, so I love this. There are a few tracks that I'd rather leave in the vault, but god the highs on this thing were phenomenal. I'd still recommend DRFL if you want to get into Juice, as it's overall more entertaining and covers a ton of genres, but still. This was great.

Rest in peace, Jarad. LLJW

Favorite Track(s): Conversations, Bad Energy, Righteous, Hate the Other Side, Life's a Mess, Come & Go, Wishing Well, Up Up and Away, Man of the Year
Least Favorite Track: Blood on My Jeans

2 Comments
3y
Amazing review. I can see that you took your time on it. I'm so happy that you like the album as there isn't much positive reviews.
Sign in to comment.
More Reviews by reaIreaIweaseI
Advertisement
Rate and review albums along with the AOTY community. Create an account today.
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
More Reviews
Sagittarius
zachthesnack
stepbacktrey
Cry
Dombot
TomBejoy
MickyT
coloncancer
TheDankestMeme
Maygirl

February Playlist