It has been nearly a year since Juice WRLD unexpectedly passed and left a him-shaped hole in the music world. He seems to have left plenty of music behind, though, as he has popped up on songs here and there over the past year. Today (December 2) would have been his 22nd birthday, and to mark the occasion, a collaboration with Benny Blanco, “Real Sh*t,” has been released.
Blanco also shared a lengthy Instagram post reflecting on recording the song and his relationship with Juice, writing, “my friend played me a song like 2 or 3 years ago… i looked at him and said it was one of the best songs i had ever heard… my friend didnt even know the artists name… said it was juice or something… i searched and searched on instagram until i came across juice’s page… he had 9k followers at the time… i dmed him and said we had to work… he said he was coming to la in a week and we could go in then… i booked us a studio… he didnt even have a record deal… labels were coming to the session all night trying to butter him up and offer him anything he wanted… he didn’t give a f*ck… he just wanted to make music… we made like 6 songs the first night… one of them being ‘roses’… the first song we ever recorded tho was ‘real sh*t’… it was the first time i saw his magic… the whole room dropped their jaws and watched him in awe… we knew we were in the room with a man who was going to change music forever… he went in the booth and recorded a song top to bottom in one take… then he did it 3 more times and said pick the best one… and they were all perfect songs… he was an absolute genius to say the least but above all he was one of the kindest and most considerate people i have ever met… he was my friend… happy birthday juice… we miss u…”
Fans have had plenty of love for Juice WRLD in 2020, as he was the most-streamed US artist of the year on Spotify.
Listen to “Real Sh*t” above.