Billboard's 'Top New Artist' Is Dead After Medical Emergency

Chicago-area rapper Juice WRLD, whose real name is Jarad A. Higgins, was pronounced dead Sunday after a "medical emergency'' at Midway International Airport, the AP reports. Police and fire officials confirmed a 21-year-old male was transported from Midway to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead. Chicago police said he experienced a "medical emergency"; TMZ is calling it a seizure. Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said the transported man experienced cardiac arrest and was taken to a hospital from a small hangar at Midway, away from the main terminal, where private planes land. Chicago police said they're conducting a death investigation. An autopsy has not yet been conducted.

After his "Lucid Dreams" and "All Girls Are the Same" became hits on SoundCloud, Juice signed with Interscope Records in 2018 and was named top new artist at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards in May, CNN recalls. SoundCloud says "Lucid Dreams" was played more than any song in 2018—a year in which Juice was the world's most reposted, liked, and streamed artist. "I want to be that person that leads people out of the place they're at," he told Billboard in a March cover story. "And in the process, maybe I’ll find the key to get out of the place that I'm at. The low places I may wander into or get trapped in."

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