Friends and family gathered to pay their tributes to Juice WRLD.
On Friday afternoon, they gathered in Harvey, Illinois to say goodbye reported TMZ.
The service included eulogies from his siblings and grandmother.
TMZ was the first to report the sad news that the rapper (whose real name is Jarad Anthony Higgins) suffered a seizure in Chicago’s Midway Airport before dying shortly after arriving on a flight from Los Angeles last week.
The rapper’s label, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, confirmed his passing. “Juice made a profound impact on the world in such a short period of time,” reads a statement from the label. “He was a gentle soul, whose creativity knew no bounds, an exceptional human being and artist who loved and cared for his fans above everything else. To lose someone so kind and so close to our hearts is devastating. Our thoughts are with Juice’s family and friends, everyone at his label Grade A, and his millions of fans around the world.”
According to law enforcement sources contacted by TMZ, he was “bleeding from the mouth” when paramedics arrived on the scene.
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Eyewitnesses told TMZ that he “was still conscious when he was rushed to a hospital. However, he was pronounced dead a short time later at the hospital. The cause of death is unclear at this time.”
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office conducted an autopsy and found it inconclusive, per CBS Chicago. A Homeland Security officer administered Narcan to the rapper at the airport, but he later died at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Law enforcement sources reportedly told TMZ, however, that they suspected a cause. Juice WLRD allegedly swallowed “a bunch of painkillers in an attempt to hide them from the feds,” the publication reported. The alleged pills are believed to have been Percocets. The private plane was supposedly grounded after the pilot informed authorities that Juice WRLD’s entourage had guns.
Juice WRLD entered the music scene with a bang when his 2018 single “Lucid Dreams” shot to number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, ultimately leading him to be signed by Interscope Records. His second album, Death Race for Love, became his first number-one album.
The rapper appeared on Travis Scott’s Astroworld album, and also collaborated with artists ranging from Ellie Goulding to K-pop superstars BTS, in addition to filling in for Future as Nicki Minaj’s opening act during her European tour.
Goulding even shared a new clip from when the two worked together on “Hate Me”.
“We will miss you Juice x,” she captioned the post.
Juice WRLD had recently celebrated his 21st birthday, which was the subject of his final Instagram post.
Juice WRLD’s unexpected death is sending shockwaves through the hip-hop community, with numerous friends and contemporaries taking to social media to pay tribute to a young rapper who was taken far too soon.
