Benny Blanco has gone into the archives, dug up a tome's worth of MSN & Myspace captions, and proceeded to work on an algorithm of sorts. The end result: Pinnacle Emo Rap. Who better to deliver the message than Juice WRLD, the melodic breakout star responsible for the platinum single "Lucid Dreams." It wouldn't be right without a stalwart emo presence on deck, and in that sense, Panic! At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie has come through to hold it down. It's not his first foray into hip-hop, having previously collaborated with Lil Dicky on "Molly," but it's certainly the closest he's come to his old stompin' grounds.
The song itself boasts pristine production, with a lush pizzicato arrangement reminiscent of Panic's emo anthem "I Write Sins Not Tragedies." Juice seems content to remain in his comfort zone, waxing poetic about flings gone awry, receiving dome, and getting drunk and stoned. In other words, peak emo themes. It's no wonder that Benny Blanco decided to put the pair together, explaining to Zane Lowe that the process was merely the next logical step. "How has no one put together the emo dudes with the emo rappers? How has that not happened?" he ponders. "Why is no one doing this? Am I the only guy who's thinking this?"
Now, Blanco has come through in a big way. The biggest young emo rapper paired with one of the genre's icons. Perhaps it's time to add the "_xx" back into your username.
Quotable Lyrics
I fuck a bad bitch
Call me young savage
But I'm ballin' like a young maverick
Cause heartbreak music is such a passion
I thought I left it inside the past tense
You gave me your heart it was made of plastic
No father havin, I'm a bastard