Music Reviews

Sadly lost to us in his prime at only age 21 in 2019, Chicago-bred emo rapper Juice WRLD at least left behind a wealth of unreleased material—and his estate’s latest official offering is a two-track stunner, The Pre-Party EP, now available as a Lossless option on Apple Music and via other digital platforms. (Small World Department: Juice WRLD, born Jarad Anthony Higgins, also attended the same high school I did back in the day—Homewood-Flossmoor High School, which is located in the Windy City’s way-south suburbs of Flossmoor, Illinois.) (And no, we weren’t there at the same time.)

This potent two-pack—a preview of what’s purported to be Juice WRLD’s fifth and final album, The Party Never Ends—was in fact released exactly at 9 a.m. globally on September 9 (a.k.a. 09.09, a.k.a. 9/9), and meant as a direct nod to the significance of a beloved number to Juice WRLD and his fanbase, 999. In essence, it symbolizes the idea of flipping a bad situation into a positive one—and that’s exactly what these two vibrant tracks do.

First up is “World Tour (Aquafina),” a cut that was previewed on Instagram Live in 2018. You can hear Juice inhale at the outset—is it meant as a soothing puff, or a resigned sigh?—before his flow-and-response kicks in just ahead of the synth-driven backing track provided by DJ Relentt. Here, we get an X-rated fugue-state storyline that rollicks through the highs and lows of mixing drugs, sex, and straight-up bravado—and if you’re paying attention, you’ll even spot a Justin Bieber namecheck. DJ Relentt lets the synth and percussive elements unfold as a wide-panned backdrop rather than become a flow-challenging volume-sweller—which, again, is often the downfall of many an overproduced aggro rap track—while the timekeeping tap-tap-taps are laid back down the middle where they belong.

As a slight modicum change of pace, the EP’s second track, “Lightyears,” opens with an acoustic guitar figure before Juice slurs through the loping roll of the breathy flow before his friend and regular cohort Young Thug twangs in around the midpoint—another look at indulgence and its consequences. Frequent Juice collaborator Nick Mira provides the beat, making sure to keep the bass ever-present but reverent to the lyrics in the mix while the acoustic guitar pans wide until the very end.

In this case, I much preferred delving into the, er, natural richness of these two tracks using my wireless House of Marley Liberate XLBT headphones over my open-air speaker system and/or AirPod Pro listening route options. “Took it too far,” Juice admits early on in “World Tour (Aquafina),” but hopefully his team will take things even further in Atmos whenever the full Party Never Ends album drops, as has been done with the balance of his prior posthumous releases. Until then, this classy, earworm-inducing Juice WRLD two-pack is worth cuing up as is in its Lossless form.

Here’s the updated version with the Apple Music link embedded: Juice WRLD: The Pre-Party EP in Lossless on Apple Music