Eminem is the self-proclaimed ‘Rap God’, and if anybody knows what it takes to become a master freestyler, then it’s him. There’s one rapper whose off-the-cuff talent blew his mind and rightly earned his seal of approval.
It was Shady’s freestyling skills which he owes his career to, and if it weren’t for his impressive performance at the Rap Olympics, then he’d never have caught the attention of Dre, who made everything else fall into place. It’s a talent that he has never lost, and Eminem remains on his own level when it comes to rhyming on the spot.
However, someone was coming for his crown and looked to knock off his perch before travesty struck with hip-hop losing a young king in Juice WRLD back in 2019.
The late rapper turned to prescription drugs to deal with his mental health problems which led to him suffering a fatal cardiac arrest at Chicago Airport.
Before his death, he collaborated with Eminem on ‘Godzilla’ after Shady hit him up after being wowed by the freestyles that Juice had previously exhibited. He needed to work with this prodigal talent, and the two hit the booth together.
The video, released a few months after his passing, ends with footage of Juice saying, “I hope everybody’s having a good day. I hope everybody accomplished something significant. Even if you didn’t accomplish anything significant, don’t be discouraged.
“Just aim to accomplish something significant tomorrow, and the next day, and so on. If anybody’s going through anything, I hope and I pray that you get through it, and just know that you do have the strength to get through whatever the f**k you’re going through, no matter what it is.”
He was only 21 and had the world in the palm in his hands. Over two years on from Juice’s passing, he remains one of the most listened to artists on Spotify, and Eminem can’t help but wonder just what he would have achieved if he was still here.
“That kid was so talented,” Eminem said on Crooked I’s podcast in 2020. “Like his freestyle, he did on Tim Westwood — what the fuck? To be so young, he mastered that so f***ing quickly. His potential was so off the charts.”
Juice WRLD was forced to show off his freestyling skills in almost every video interview, and it’s like watching a magician at work, except there’s no trickery involved. Instead, it’s just one man who had an inexplicable talent once a beat and a microphone were placed in front of him.
The Tim Westwood freestyle, which Shady referred to, is utterly mindblowing, and Juice WRLD somehow manages to last almost a full hour rapping over Eminem’s beats without slipping.
Take it in below.
