Recognizing Juice WRLD’s Death
Photo by David Wolff
By Jonathon Reed
One of the ways I find common interests (a quality of relational learning, which I wrote about last month) with boys is by keeping my finger on youth trends in music, particularly hip hop and rap. So when I saw on Instagram that 21-year-old rapper and pioneer of the SoundCloud rap subgenre Juice WRLD had died, I knew it mattered.
To quote an article published on with the news of his death: “In 2017, Lil Peep overdosed. In 2018, XXXTentacion was murdered. And now, Juice WRLD. […] The subgenre’s biggest stars are mostly gone. Its novelty has worn off, and what’s left is a fragment. Juice’s death is a supernova event. Death has won the battle.”
If it’s significant for a staff writer at GQ, it’s significant for a young adolescent immersed in the peripheral rap industry—so I wonder how significant it would be for that teen to hear from a teacher or parent an expression of awareness or condolence, and perhaps an inquiry of what meaning an event like this carries.
Juice WRLD frequently acknowledged personal struggles within the music industry; in a song released earlier this year, he rapped: “I go through so much, I’m 19 years old / It’s been months since I felt at home / But it’s okay ‘cause I’m rich / Psych, I’m still sad as a bitch.” In the aftermath of XXX’s death, he wrote: “They tell me I’ma be a legend / I don’t want that title now / ‘Cause all the legends seem to die out / What the fuck is this ‘bout?” He made reference to the ’27 Club’ that began with the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, and said: “We ain’t making it past 21.” Which turned out to be true.
Knowing that suicide is the most significant cause of death among boys, and knowing that Juice WRLD’s expression of struggle resonates deeply with young people, I think there is a place for open-ended questions about the feelings boys carry about his music and the impact of a role model dying. But it’s going to take thoughtful, connected mentors to open that conversation.
ICYMI This Week
Let’s finally call ‘violence against women’ what it really is (Maclean’s)
“It’s like parenting on steroids”: Raising boys in the #MeToo era (CBS News)
When my teacher asked me (A poem by a 12-year-old boy, shared on Twitter)
Written by Next Gen Men Program Manager Jonathon Reed as part of Learnings & Unlearnings, a weekly newsletter reflecting on our experiences working with boys and young men. Subscribe to get Learnings & Unlearnings delivered to your email inbox.