Juice WRLD, Hip-Hop Star Influenced By Metal And Emo, Dead At 21

Rapper Juice WRLD, known for his love of rock, punk, and emo music, apparently passed away after having a seizure in Chicago's Midway airport. He was 21 years old.

Earlier today, TMZ revealed that the rap star, known for his song Lucid Dreams which used a melody borrowed from Sting's Shape Of My Heart, landed in Chicago on a flight from California before suffering a seizure while walking through Midway. Law enforcement officials say he was bleeding from the mouth when paramedics arrived.

Juice was apparently still conscious when he was transported by Chicago Fire, but that he was pronounced dead a short time later at the hospital.

Juice's cause of death is unclear at this time.

Everyone at Kerrang! sends their heart out Juice WRLD's family, friends, loved ones and collaborators.

Juice's love of rock and metal began “with a crush I had in fifth grade”, according to an interview with The Guardian. “I was like: ‘I gotta know everything about them so I can impress this girl.’ So I did my research....I wrote her a note: ‘Do you like me? Yes or no?’ She circled ‘no’. But I kept listening to the music. Remember those iPod Classics that look like a brick now? I had one filled with Escape the Fate, Panic At the Disco, Killswitch Engage …”

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Juice recently made headlines in the rock world when pop-punk act Yellowcard sued him for using “melodic elements” from their song Holly Wood Died on Lucid Dreams, the track helped launch the rapper’s career.

Also included in the lawsuit are were song’s co-writer Taz Taylor (a.k.a. Danny Lee Snodgress Jr.), his publishers Taz Taylor Beats, Artist 101 Publishing Group along with publishing administrator Kobalt Music Services; producer Nicholas Mira, his publishers Nick Mira Publishing, Electric Feel Music, and publishing administrator Songs of Universal; the song’s publisher BMG Rights Management; record label Grade A Productions; and finally, Grade A’s parent company, Interscope Records.

According to the complaint, “The Infringing Work and Infringing Sound Recording directly misappropriates quantitatively and qualitatively important portions of Plaintiffs’ Original Work in a manner that is easily recognizable to the ordinary observer. The Infringing Work and Infringing Sound Recording are not only substantially similar to the Original Work, but in some places virtually identical…The high degree of objective similarity between the Original Work and the Infringing Work extends well beyond the possibility of coincidence and could only reasonably be the result of an act of copying.”

In a statement, Yellowcard's attorney Richard Busch initially said, “This was not a lawsuit the guys wanted to file. They put all of the parties on notice a long while ago and gave them every opportunity to try to resolve it. That notice was pretty much ignored leaving them with no real choice. As alleged in the Complaint, this is not just a generic Emo Rap song, but is a blatant copy of significant original compositional elements of Holly Wood Died in several respects. Beyond that, everything we have to say is in the Complaint.”

How Juice's death affects Yellowcard's suit remains to be seen.

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