Jarad Higgins wasn't just making songs in his bedroom or high-end studios. He was building a world. If you close your eyes and think of his music, you probably don't just hear the melodic trap beats or the emo-rap crooning; you see vibrant purples, jagged sketches, and that iconic 999 motif. Juice WRLD cover arts became the visual language for a generation of kids who felt exactly like he did. It’s weird, honestly, how a single image can sum up a 15-track project before you even hit play.
The art wasn't an afterthought. It was the skin on the body of the work.
From the DIY aesthetic of the SoundCloud era to the high-budget, posthumous releases handled by Grade A and Interscope, the evolution of Juice WRLD's cover arts tells a story of a kid who became a king and then a legend. It’s a mix of anime influences, drug-induced surrealism, and raw, unfiltered sadness.
The Breakthrough: Goodbye & Good Riddance
Think back to 2018. Goodbye & Good Riddance drops. The cover is a sketch. It looks like something you’d find in the back of a high schooler's notebook during a boring math class. You see a car, a girl walking away, and a feeling of total abandonment. It's blue. Cold.
That specific piece of art was created by Majiin Killer. It’s basically the blueprint for the "Sad Boy" aesthetic that dominated the late 2010s. It wasn't polished. It wasn't a high-fashion photoshoot of Juice standing in front of a Bentley. It was a drawing. That choice was huge because it signaled to the fans that Jarad was one of them. He wasn't some untouchable celebrity; he was a kid who liked cartoons and got his heart broken.
Most people don't realize how much that cover changed things. Before this, rap covers were often about posturing. This was about vulnerability. The hand-drawn style felt intimate. It felt like a secret.
The blue hue of the background isn't just a random color choice. It sets the emotional temperature. It’s depressing. It’s lonely. When you see that car—the one he eventually crashes in the "Lucid Dreams" video—you're seeing a literal vehicle for his pain.
Death Race for Love and the PS1 Nostalgia
Then comes Death Race for Love. This is where things got ambitious. If the first album was a diary entry, this was a blockbuster movie. Or, more accurately, a video game.
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The cover is a direct homage to the Twisted Metal series on PlayStation. You've got Juice in a car, fire everywhere, and a chaotic, low-poly aesthetic that screams 1990s nostalgia. It’s loud. It’s aggressive. It reflects an album that was recorded in a literal blur—some say he finished the whole thing in a few days.
The artist behind this, Josh "PaperFrank" Woods, captured the frantic energy of Juice's lifestyle at the time. He was touring the world, recording hundreds of songs, and dealing with the massive weight of fame.
- The car represents the "race" against his own demons.
- The flames are the burnout.
- The "999" is the armor.
It’s interesting because Juice WRLD cover arts always seem to feature a journey. He’s rarely standing still. He’s driving, he’s flying, or he’s falling. Death Race for Love is the peak of that movement. It’s messy because his life was messy.
The Posthumous Shift: Legends Never Die
Everything changed after December 2019. When Legends Never Die was announced, the visual tone shifted from chaotic energy to a sort of peaceful, tragic immortality.
The cover for Legends Never Die is stunning. It’s a painting. Juice is standing in a field of flowers, looking up at the sky. It’s bright. It’s hopeful, which is gut-wrenching considering he wasn't here to see it. This wasn't Majiin Killer's raw sketches or PaperFrank's frantic colors. This was a tribute.
The artist, Corey Mathis, worked to create something that felt like a goodbye. The use of the 999 symbol in the clouds and the vibrant, almost heavenly landscape turned Juice into a myth. It’s a far cry from the bedroom-sketched car in Goodbye & Good Riddance.
Some fans argued that it felt "too clean." There's a segment of the fanbase that prefers the grittiness of the early Juice WRLD cover arts because they feel more authentic to his SoundCloud roots. But for a mainstream, record-breaking posthumous album, the "hero in a field" imagery worked. It solidified his status as a permanent fixture in music history.
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Fighting Demons and the Darker Side
Then we get to Fighting Demons. This one feels different. It’s darker, literally and figuratively. The cover features Juice in a void, surrounded by shadowy figures. It’s a visual representation of anxiety.
While Legends Never Die was about his legacy, Fighting Demons was about his struggle. The art reflects the internal war he talked about in every single song. It’s less "heavenly" and more "purgatory."
You have to look at the collab covers too. Wrld on Drugs with Future had that weird, melting, psychedelic look. It was toxic. It looked like a chemical spill. That art, handled by KidEight, used 3D rendering to make everything look glossy but dangerous. It’s the visual equivalent of a lean-induced trance.
Why the Fans Make Their Own
Honestly, the official covers are only half the story. The community around Juice WRLD is obsessed with "what if" scenarios. Go on Reddit or Instagram and search for fan-made Juice WRLD cover arts. You’ll find thousands.
Why? Because Jarad had so much unreleased music—literally thousands of songs—that fans feel the need to give every "leak" its own identity. They use his favorite tropes:
- Anime (mostly Naruto or Dragon Ball Z vibes).
- Outer space and galaxies.
- Skulls and skeletons mixed with bright colors.
- Tributes to fallen friends like XXXTentacion and Lil Peep.
This DIY culture keeps his image alive. It’s a cycle where the art feeds the music and the music feeds the art. When a new leak like "Rental" or "Off the Romance" hits the internet, someone has a high-quality cover ready within minutes. It’s a decentralized art gallery dedicated to one guy from Chicago.
The Technical Artistry Behind the 999
The number 999 is everywhere. It’s his brand, his philosophy, and the most consistent element in all Juice WRLD cover arts. He explained it as taking whatever "666" (the devil, the bad, the hell) and turning it upside down to make it something positive.
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In the art, 999 isn't just a number. It's often hidden in the environment. It’s on the license plates. It’s in the stars. It’s tattooed on the characters in the drawings.
From a design perspective, this is genius. It creates a "Where’s Waldo" effect for fans. It rewards people for looking closer. It makes the album art an interactive experience rather than just a thumbnail on Spotify.
The Influence of Anime and Streetwear
Juice was a massive nerd in the best way possible. He loved Death Note. He loved Tokyo Ghoul. You can see this influence in the sharp, angular lines of his earlier covers.
The "LND" era moved away from this slightly, but the fan-favorite The Party Never Ends (the long-awaited final album) has seen dozens of iterations that lean back into that high-octane, animated style. The aesthetic is "Streetwear Surrealism." It’s Bape hoodies and Off-White sneakers mixed with demons and dragons.
It’s a specific niche. It’s not "fine art" in the traditional sense, but it’s the most influential art style of the last decade for Gen Z. It’s the visual version of a heavy bass line and a melodic hook.
How to Appreciate the Visual Legacy
If you're looking to really understand the impact of these visuals, don't just look at them on your phone screen. Find the vinyl versions. Look at the gatefold art for Death Race for Love.
The scale changes everything. You see the small details—the way the light hits the car, the specific flowers chosen for the Legends cover, the hidden messages in the background of the Fighting Demons promotional materials.
Juice WRLD didn't just leave behind a hard drive full of songs. He left a visual dictionary of how it feels to be young, gifted, and hurting. The cover arts are the chapters of that book.
Actionable Ways to Explore the Art
- Track the Artists: Follow Majiin Killer and PaperFrank on social media. They often post early sketches and rejected concepts for the covers that give a totally different vibe to the albums.
- Check the Creative Direction: Look into the work of Brandon "Lil Bibby" Dickinson and the Grade A team. They oversee the visual cohesion of the posthumous era. Seeing how they choose which fan art to acknowledge versus what they commission officially is a lesson in brand management.
- Analyze the Color Palettes: Notice how the colors shift from the cool blues of Goodbye & Good Riddance to the fiery oranges of Death Race and finally the golden sunsets of Legends. It’s a literal sunset on a career.
- Explore Fan Communities: Join the Juice WRLD Discord or subreddit. The "Art" flairs there contain some of the most creative interpretations of his style you'll ever see, often rivaling the official releases in quality and emotion.
The music gets you through the night, but the art gives you a place to live. That’s the real power of the visual world Jarad built. It’s not just marketing. It’s a home for the 999 family.