aA little over a year ago, Illinois-born artist Jarad Higgins gave the go to release his newest work. As September of 2018 rolls around, Jarad Higgins, formally known as “Juice WRLD,” is showcased as one of the top rap artists in the game.

“Lucid Dreams” released on July 1 all the way back in 2017, but word of the song didn’t get out until the day after his music video came out for another hit song of his, entitled “All Girls Are The Same.” After the song was played more and more, Juice released the song on all major music platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music. This song has a lasting impact on some of the people who have been a fan of Juice WRLD since the beginning of his headline career.

John Jones is a junior at Cedar Park who said that he has a strong opinion of the song. Jones said that he loved the beat and flow at his first listen, and he’s been listening to it daily for almost six months.

“I was instantly hooked,” Jones said. “It has lyrics that make you think. From the amazing chorus that catches your attention every time, to the amazing guitar sample and production in general, it all just adds up to make the song an instant banger.”

The song samples guitar instrumentals from “Shape of My Heart,” which is a track that was released in 1993 by “The Police.” Producer Nick Mira chose to sample that track since the lyrics Juice wrote flowed with the instrumental.

Junior Cole Sylvester, who has a guitar background of his own, said that the sample that Mira used for “Lucid Dreams” fit well with the type of sound he goes for.

“I liked the song that he sampled, I can connect to that,” Sylvester said. “Plus, the lyrics he writes are not just cliche sentences, I feel like they are creative and are unique to the song.”

MY OPINION

I would say that I’m in the group of people who are fans of Juice WRLD. His songs have true meaning, as opposed to other rap songs that just have the same catchy words looping throughout the whole song. Ever since I first heard not only “Lucid Dreams,” but his whole album “Goodbye & Good Riddance,” I’ve been very interested in the culture of his music and the mind behind his motto, “999.”

This motto means to turn all of the negatives in your life into positive energy. This is because “666” is known as a demonic number, and if you write it down and turn the paper around, it reads “999.” His goal is to make sure every person who listens to his music can connect to that. I can connect to “999” in that it shows a lot of his character, and artists who show their character in the way that he does allows the listeners to respect him as not only an artist, but as a person. 

In the near future, I expect Juice WRLD to put out a whole new realm of music, and judging from his fans’ positive response after “Lucid Dreams,” the future for Juice WRLD should be bright.