Legends Never Die (Juice Wrld album)

Legends Never Die is the third studio album by American rapper Juice Wrld, released posthumously following his death on December 8, 2019. It was released on July 10, 2020, through Grade A Productions and Interscope Records. The album features guest appearances from The Weeknd, Trippie Redd, Marshmello, Polo G, The Kid Laroi, and Halsey.

Legends Never Die
Studio album by
Juice Wrld
ReleasedJuly 10, 2020 (2020-07-10)
GenreEmo rap[1]
Length58:50
Label
Producer
Juice Wrld chronology
Death Race for Love
(2019)		 Legends Never Die
(2020)
Singles from Legends Never Die
  1. "Righteous"
    Released: April 24, 2020
  2. "Tell Me U Luv Me"
    Released: May 29, 2020
  3. "Life's a Mess"
    Released: July 6, 2020
  4. "Come & Go"
    Released: July 9, 2020
  5. "Wishing Well"
    Released: July 28, 2020
  6. "Smile"
    Released: August 7, 2020

Legends Never Die received generally positive reviews from critics and debuted atop the US Billboard 200 with 497,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. It also reached number one in several other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom. The album was supported by six singles: "Righteous", "Tell Me U Luv Me", "Life's a Mess", "Come & Go", "Wishing Well", and "Smile".

Background

In January 2020, a month following Juice Wrld's death, it was reported that at least two thousand songs were recorded before the rapper's passing. 26 of these were leaked onto the streaming platform SoundCloud by the user "999 WRLD".[2] Juice's label (Grade A) and family released a statement regarding his unreleased music:

From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank each and every one of you for your undivided adoration and love for Juice. You guys meant the entire world to Juice and by listening to his music, watching his videos and sharing your stories about him, you are keeping his memory alive forever. We plan to honor Juice’s talents, his spirit, and the love he felt for his fans by sharing unreleased music and other projects that he was passionately in the process of developing.[3]

On May 4, 2020, Juice's girlfriend Ally Lotti referenced an album under the title of The Outsiders which Juice Wrld had intended to make his next album.[4] However, the label and Juice Wrld's grieving family chose to delay The Outsiders and first put a 15-track tribute album titled Legends Never Die that was announced on July 7, 2020.[5] Two days after the album announcement, Juice's manager Lil Bibby hinted at a deluxe edition after fans demanded more songs.[6]

Promotion

"Righteous" was released on April 24, 2020, as the album's lead single.[7] "Tell Me U Luv Me" featuring Trippie Redd, was released on May 29, 2020, as the album's second single.[8] "Life's a Mess" featuring Halsey, was released on July 6, 2020, as the album's third single.[9] A teaser video of the album was released later that day.[10] "Come & Go" featuring EDM producer Marshmello, was released on July 9, as the album's fourth single.[11] The album's fifth single, "Wishing Well", was sent to rhythmic contemporary radio on July 28, 2020.[12] "Smile" featuring The Weeknd, was released on August 7, 2020, as the album's sixth single.[13]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Album of the Year74/100[14]
AnyDecentMusic?7.2/10[15]
Metacritic76/100[16]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[17]
Clash9/10[18]
The Guardian[19]
HipHopDX3.7/5[20]
The Line of Best Fit9/10[21]
NME[22]
Pitchfork7.1/10[23]
Rolling Stone[24]

Legends Never Die was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 76, based on nine reviews.[16] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.2 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[15] Album of the Year assessed the critical consensus as 74 out of 100, based on nine reviews.[14]

Writing for Clash, Mike Milenko acclaimed the album, calling it "poetic, prophetic and poignant". Milenko further stated that the album's production works well with Wrld's voice and noted "Life's a Mess", "Come & Go", "Man of the Year" and "Wishing Well" as standouts from the record. However, Milenko opined that "some tracks are throwaway".[18] Sheldon Pearce of The Guardian wrote that Legends Never Die is "overstuffed, sometimes underwritten and often puerile", but praise was directed towards Wrlds' performances on the album. Pearce also commended the way Wrld's "leading his listeners through their own angst", referring to the tracks "Bad Energy" and "Fighting Demons", on which Pearce opined that he "sounds like a patron saint of the melancholy masses".[19] The Line of Best Fit's reviewer Steven Loftin, who praised the album, wrote that it's "both a celebration and a standing document to the intricate mind he [Wrld] truly was, and it indeed does justice to a unique mind".[21] A. D. Amorosi of Variety said, "Sonically, compared with Juice WRLD's early SoundCloud material, Legends Never Die, is positively lush – not over-produced, but comparatively elaborately arranged."[25] Fred Thomas of AllMusic gave a positive review, stating, "Legends Never Die is as strong a collection of Juice WRLD songs as any, with already-searing songs made more intense by the shadow of their departed creator looming over the album."[17] Brody Kenny of HipHopDX said, "Legends Never Die functions as a goodbye to and from Juice WRLD. His exact wishes for a post-death album might never be known, but this avoids feeling exploitative."[20]

Dhruva Balram of NME called the album bloated and noted that it does "little to serve his [Wrld's] legacy justice". However, Barlam praised the first half of the album, while opining that the "intimacy" of Wrld's other projects is missing on Legends Never Die. Balram described the criticism as the following: "Despite the contagious nature of most of the tracks, that message is muted or left jumbled within a meandering album. Juice Wrld's music came to life most when he made it seem like you were the only two people in the room like he was speaking directly to you, the listener. That intimacy is sadly missing here".[22] Brandon Caldwell of Pitchfork called the record repetitive at times, but stated that "the gripping parts of Legends Never Die come when Juice is speaking from the heart".[23] Writing for Rolling Stone, Danny Schwartz wrote that "the album shines brightest when Juice stops navel-gazing, when he tempers his fatalism with a sense of hope and togetherness, the yang to his depressive yin". Schwartz noted the tracks "Righteous" and "Wishing Well" as standouts.[24]

Commercial performance

Legends Never Die debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 497,000 album-equivalent units (including 209,000 pure album sales) in its first week, becoming the rapper's second number one album. The album also accumulated a total of 422.63 million on-demand streams of the set's tracks in the week ending July 25.[26] For the week ending July 25, 2020, a total of 17 of the album's songs charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with five entries in the top 10: "Come & Go", "Wishing Well", "Conversations", "Life's a Mess", and "Hate the Other Side", which reached numbers two, five, seven, nine, and 10, respectively.[27] This made Juice Wrld the third artist to ever achieve this, behind the Beatles and Drake; the album also become the most successful posthumous release in 20 years.[28] "Life's a Mess" notably jumped from number 74 to number nine that week.[27]

In the United Kingdom, Legends Never Die debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 22,000 album-equivalent units.[29]

Track listing

Credits adapted from Tidal.[30]

Legends Never Die track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Anxiety" (Intro)Jarad Higgins 1:10
2."Conversations"
3:01
3."Titanic"
2:56
4."Bad Energy"
3:06
5."Righteous"
4:02
6."Blood on My Jeans"
2:34
7."Smile" (with The Weeknd)
3:16
8."Tell Me U Luv Me" (with Trippie Redd)
  • Mira
  • OkTanner
3:00
9."Hate the Other Side" (with Marshmello featuring Polo G and The Kid Laroi)
Marshmello2:40
10."Get Through It" (Interlude)Higgins 0:20
11."Life's a Mess" (with Halsey)
3:22
12."Come & Go" (with Marshmello)
  • Higgins
  • Comstock
Marshmello3:25
13."I Want It"
2:53
14."Fighting Demons"
  • Higgins
  • Darien Marchand
  • Mira
  • Sidepce
  • Mira
3:20
15."Wishing Well"
3:14
16."Screw Juice"
  • Higgins
  • Mira
Mira2:59
17."Up Up and Away"
  • Higgins
  • Kudo
  • Vojtesak
  • Kudo
  • Charlie Handsome[b]
2:27
18."The Man, The Myth, The Legend" (Interlude)Higgins 2:16
19."Stay High"
  • Higgins
  • Lloyd Mizell
  • Khaled Rohaim
  • 2Fly
  • KhaledBeats
  • Sid Mallick[b]
2:48
20."Can't Die"
  • Higgins
  • Avery
  • Morgan O'Connor
  • DY Krazy
  • O'Connor
3:02
21."Man of the Year"
2:16
22."Juice WRLD Speaks from Heaven" (Outro)Higgins 0:30
Total length:58:50

Notes

  • ^[a] signifies a co-producer
  • ^[b] signifies an uncredited co-producer[31]
  • ^[c] signifies an uncredited additional producer[32]
  • "Smile" was added after the album's initial release[33]

Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.[30]

  • Juice Wrld – vocals (all tracks)
  • Halsey – background vocals (13)
  • Bibby – engineer (1, 10, 18, 22)
  • Max Lord – engineer (2, 3, 9, 12–14, 16, 17, 20, 21), mixer (3, 5, 7, 16, 19), mastering engineer (5), recording engineer (5)
  • Clint Gibbs – engineer (15)
  • Kalani Thompson – engineer (15)
  • Lloyd "2Fly" Mizell – engineer (15, 19)
  • Tyler Sheppard – engineer (15)
  • Tatsuya Sato – mastering engineer (1, 3, 4, 6, 9–14, 16–19, 21, 22)
  • Dale Becker – mastering engineer (15)
  • Serban Ghenea – mixer (15)
  • Ben Lidsky – mixer (15, 18, 20)
  • Manny Marroquin – mixer (2, 4, 6, 8–14, 17, 20)
  • Rafael "Come2Brazil" Fadul – mixer (7)
  • Chris Galland – assistant mixer (2, 4, 6, 9, 11–14, 17, 20)
  • Jeremie Inhaber – assistant mixer (2, 4, 6, 9, 11–14, 17, 20)
  • Robin Florent – assistant mixer (2, 4, 6, 9, 11–14, 17, 20)
  • KhaledBeats – recording arranger (1), string arranger (10, 18, 22)
  • Hylton Mowday – strings (1, 10, 18)
  • Brandon Buttner – vocal producer (13)

Charts
Chart performance for Legends Never Die
Chart (2020) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[34] 1
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[35] 2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[36] 3
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[37] 18
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[38] 1
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI)[39] 1
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[40] 1
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[41] 2
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[42] 1
French Albums (SNEP)[43] 23
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[44] 4
Irish Albums (OCC)[45] 1
Italian Albums (FIMI)[46] 9
Lithuanian Albums (AGATA)[47] 2
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[48] 1
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[49] 1
Scottish Albums (OCC)[50] 56
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[51] 12
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[52] 3
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[53] 2
UK Albums (OCC)[54] 1
US Billboard 200[55] 1
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[56] 1
US Top Rap Albums (Billboard)[57] 1
gollark: Tons of environmental things are mildly bad for people's brains (lead not so mildly) and it scares me a bit.
gollark: Unrelatedly, it is *very* annoyingly warm here.
gollark: Which you can do. There are plenty of spare children you can ~~steal~~ have.
gollark: I assume he just means adoption.
gollark: V nterr, ebg13 vf gur zbfg frpher rapelcgvba naq irel rkpryyrag ng frphevat nyy lbhe qngn.

References
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  2. Centeno, Tony M. (January 28, 2020). "Report: Juice Wrld Had Thousands of Unreleased Songs". XXL. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  3. Sharp, Tyler (January 22, 2020). "Juice Wrld's Family Releases First Statement Since Rapper's Death". XXL. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  4. Moorwood, Victoria (May 4, 2020). "Juice WRLD's girlfriend reveals title of his upcoming posthumous album". Revolt. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
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  6. Cowen, Trace William (July 9, 2020). "Stream Juice WRLD's Posthumous Album 'Legends Never Die'". Complex. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
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  8. "Tell Me U Luv Me – Single by Juice WRLD & Trippie Redd". Archived from the original on July 14, 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2020 – via Apple Music.
  9. "Life's a Mess – Single by Juice WRLD & Halsey". Archived from the original on July 14, 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2020 – via Apple Music.
  10. Maicki, Salvatore (July 6, 2020). "Juice WRLD's posthumous new album Legends Never Die is out this Friday". The Fader. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
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  12. "Top 40 Rhythmic Future Releases". All Access. Archived from the original on July 16, 2020. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
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  31. 🗣 Nils again. (July 11, 2020). "Conversations 🕊". Retrieved July 12, 2020 – via Instagram.
    – Charlie Handsome (July 11, 2020). "No big speech...Juice was an incredible artist and from my experience a nice guy. You don't know how long you're gonna get. I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is' –Kurt Vonnegut Prod @charliehandsom3 @rexkudo". Retrieved July 12, 2020 – via Instagram.
    – Khaled Rohaim (July 10, 2020). "Produced by me, 2fly and @sidmallick_ thank you @lilbibby_ and the @gradea family". Retrieved July 12, 2020 – via Instagram.
  32. heavy (July 6, 2020). "so honored to be a part of such a special record. LLJW. Life's a Mess • produced by @rexkudo @charliehandsom3 – additional production by me and @rickrubin". Retrieved July 12, 2020 – via Instagram.
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