In the early hours of Sunday, December 8, rapper Jarad Anthony Higgins, more commonly known as Juice Wrld, passed away. Multiple sources confirmed the rapper suffered convulsions and a cardiac arrest at Chicago’s Midway airport. According to law enforcement sources, Higgins “began convulsing (and) going into a seizure” while police searched two carts of luggage at about 2 a.m. Sunday at the private hangar at Midway. An agent administered two doses of Narcan, an emergency treatment when opioid overdose is suspected. Once incoherently conscious, paramedics rushed the rapper to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was pronounced dead nearly an hour later at 3:14 a.m.
At the time of landing, officials searched Juice Wrld and his crew for drugs and guns to find 41 “vacuum-sealed” bags of marijuana, six bottles of prescription codeine cough syrup, two 9 mm pistols, a .40-caliber pistol, a high-capacity ammunition magazine and metal-piercing bullets. Police charged two of his security guards with misdemeanor offenses for illegally possessing guns and ammunition. Monday’s autopsy results were inconclusive, and more tests need to be run by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office in order to determine the cause of death.
Speculation about the rapper’s sobriety at the time arose. “According to the Chicago police account, they were called to assist federal and state agents who were at the Midway private jet terminal early Sunday to meet an arriving jet that may have ‘contained a large amount of narcotics,’” Hannah Yasharoff of USA Today said. The rapper’s girlfriend previously spoke about his drug addiction to narcotics like Percocet and codeine. It still remains unclear whether or not the rapper was on drugs.
The young star turned 21 just last week. He rose to fame after the debut of some of his hit songs such as “All Girls Are the Same” and “Lucid Dreams.” Higgins previously rapped about dying young following deaths of rappers XXXTentacion and Lil Peep. The eerie lyrics of his song “Legends” allude to his own death. “What’s the 27 club? We ain’t making it past 21,” he sang. The “27 club” refers to a group of singers who all died when they were 27 including Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. Another uncanny trend leading up to the rapper’s death appears on the video/social media platform TikTok. Tiktok users danced to his song “Lucid Dreams,” then pretended to have a seizure as a part of the trend. The videos were trending prior to the seizure he suffered, which make the ominous videos disturbing. Following the rapper’s fatal seizure, some users may find the videos disrespectful.
Having collaborated with many top artists like Lil Uzi Vert, BTS, Panic! At the Disco’s Brendon Urie ad Nicki Minaj, Juice Wrld received a lot of attention on social media following his death, with heartfelt messages and prayers from many celebrities.
