The death of Juice WRLD hit the hip-hop community heavily. At just 21-years-old, he had accomplished so much in his short career. Chart-topping singles, sold-out tours, and a collaborative project with Future, an artist that influenced him in more ways than one. Juice WRLD previously spoke on how he creditted Future for introducing him for lean. "That’s the first thing I told [Future]," Juice said in a 2018 interview with Vulture. "He just was like, 'Wow.' He kind of apologized."
Future discussed the death of Juice WRLD in his cover story for XXL. Of course, Juice was an incredibly young artist that had gained fans in veteran circles, including artists like Future and Young Thug, who had not only influenced him but embraced him, as well. "It was heartbreaking about Juice. Still to this day, I’m heartbroke. Rest in peace to Juice Wrld. He’s a great artist. He had so much more to do," Future said.
Future's previously faced criticism for incessant references to substances in his music, predominantly pharmaceuticals like lean or Percocet. When asked whether he felt any sort of way about influencing Juice WRLD to dabble into lean, he explained that he did but he noted he was far from the first to do so.
"Yeah, but it was so many people that came before me that talked about drugs from rock ’n’ roll stars to pop stars to people aware of other artists going to rehabs and aware of other artists’ overdose and there is so many other people that was a part of this world way before me," he said. "It’s just like, I probably shedded more light on it and brought more attention to it from my cadence or my charisma and the way people reacted to it, but everything I said was already talked about before me."
However, he made it clear that he never had the intention of influencing anyone, including Juice WRLD, to ever use drugs themselves. Though he admitted it's a touchy subject to speak on, he made it clear that he was simply trying to be himself when he entered the rap game.
"Me having an influence on that, I just feel like...that is not my intentions. My intention was just to be me. I’m just being me and what you get from it is what you get from it, but at the same time, I wouldn’t want no one to go through anything to harm theyself or to bring death to theyself and Juice Wrld is a touchy situation. I’m heartbroken by the whole thing. My heart goes out to his family, his mom."
Elsewhere in the interview, he addressed rumors of WATTA2... kinda. "Yeah, so we always gonna make music," he revealed "How we put the music out—we strategically got to come out with different ways and new ways to be able to put the music out and connect with the fans in a different way, but also still feed the fans and always respect our duo."
Though a collab project with Drake might not be coming into fruition anytime soon, it does appear to that their recent top 10 charting single, "Life Is Good" is also the title of Future's next project. Keep your eyes peeled for a release date.