It is a specific kind of heavy. You know that feeling when you've finally "made it," but the people you wanted to share the victory with are suddenly, tragically gone? That is exactly where Jarad Higgins—the world knew him as Juice WRLD—was living when he recorded the Rich and Blind lyrics. Released in the summer of 2018 as part of the Too Soon... EP, the track serves as a frantic, melodic eulogy for his peers XXXTentacion and Lil Peep. It wasn't just a song. It was a cry for help that millions of fans are still dissecting years after Juice's own passing.
The melody is deceptively upbeat, a signature of producer Marz. But don't let that fool you.
The words are dark.
Honestly, it’s one of the most vulnerable moments in modern hip-hop history. When Juice sings about being "rich and blind," he isn't bragging about a bank account or iced-out jewelry. He’s talking about a forced ignorance. He's talking about how the glare of the spotlight makes it impossible to see the cliff you’re walking toward.
The Meaning Behind the Rich and Blind Lyrics
To understand this track, you have to look at the timeline. In June 2018, the music world was reeling. XXXTentacion had just been murdered in Florida. Lil Peep had died of an overdose just months prior. Juice WRLD, who was arguably the fastest-rising star in the genre at the time, felt the weight of the "27 Club" looming over him, even though he was only 19.
He starts the song with a blunt reality check: "It's funny how the blessed ones had the most curses."
It’s a paradox. You spend your whole life chasing the bag, thinking money cures the anxiety, but once you arrive, the anxiety just gets more expensive. Juice explores the idea that the "smoke and mirrors" of the industry act as a blindfold. He says he's "blind" because he can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, only the flashing lights of the paparazzi and the neon glow of the studio.
He explicitly mentions the "three Musketeers" in the Rich and Blind lyrics, a reference to the collective struggle of young artists trying to navigate fame while battling internal demons. He felt like a survivor who didn't know how much time he had left on the clock. It’s haunting to listen to now, knowing he would pass away just a year and a half later.
Why the "Blindfold" Metaphor Matters
Juice mentions wearing a blindfold like he’s Birdman (the movie Bird Box was huge around that time, though the song predates the film's peak hype, the sentiment remains). But his blindfold is internal.
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- He's blinding himself to the pain of loss.
- He's blinding himself to the reality of his drug use.
- He's blinding himself to the fake people surrounding him.
The lyrics describe a world where everyone wants a piece of his soul, but nobody wants to help him carry the burden. He talks about how he's "killing himself" just to make a living. It’s a brutal cycle. You get rich to escape the struggle, then the richness becomes the struggle.
Breaking Down the Key Verses
The song doesn't follow a standard pop structure. It feels like a stream of consciousness.
In the first verse, he touches on the "lost souls." He isn't just talking about the famous dead; he’s talking about an entire generation of kids who feel disconnected. He mentions the "pill-popping" culture, not to glorify it, but as a symptom of the "blindness."
"They tell me that they love me, I know they're lying."
That line hits like a freight train. It’s the paranoia of the wealthy. When you have nothing, you know who your friends are. When you have $10 million, everyone is your best friend. Juice was smart enough to see the vultures, but he felt too tired to fight them off.
The Connection to XXXTentacion and Lil Peep
Juice was vocal about how much X and Peep influenced him. He saw them as blueprints for the "emo-rap" sound that conquered SoundCloud and eventually the Billboard charts. When they died, it felt like the floor dropped out from under the genre.
In the Rich and Blind lyrics, he laments that "all the legends are dying out."
It’s a terrifying thought for a teenager. Imagine being told you're the "next big thing" and then watching every other "big thing" disappear. He felt like a target was on his back. He mentions "the truth is hard to digest," which is basically him admitting that the lifestyle everyone envies is actually a gilded cage.
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Technical Mastery in the Songwriting
Juice WRLD was famous for his freestyles. He famously went on Tim Westwood’s show and freestyled for over an hour straight. Rich and Blind feels like it was captured in one of those moments of pure, unfiltered flow.
The rhyme scheme isn't overly complex, but the emotional delivery is what sells it. He uses "slant rhymes" and internal rhyming to keep the pace fast, reflecting the manic energy of his life at the time. He jumps from talking about his bank account to talking about his funeral in the span of two bars.
That’s the "Juice WRLD effect."
Most rappers separate their "flexing" songs from their "sad" songs. Juice didn't see a difference. To him, the money and the sadness were two sides of the same coin. You can't have the "rich" without the "blind."
The Cultural Impact of the Track
When this song dropped on SoundCloud, it wasn't just another track. It became an anthem for a subset of Gen Z that felt overlooked. It validated the feeling that you can have everything and still feel like you have nothing.
The Rich and Blind lyrics provided a vocabulary for mental health in a space—hip-hop—that hasn't always been welcoming to those conversations. Juice forced the listener to look at the ugly parts of success. He didn't mask the addiction or the fear. He put it on a pedestal and asked us to look at it.
Common Misconceptions About the Lyrics
A lot of people think this song is a celebration of the rockstar lifestyle because of the title. It’s the opposite.
Some critics argued that Juice was "glamorizing" the very things that were killing him. But if you actually listen to the words, there's no glamour. There’s only exhaustion. He’s "blind" because the "gold chains are choking him." It's a critique of the industry's tendency to chew up young talent and spit out the remains.
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Others think the song was written after his own health scares. Actually, it was almost entirely a reaction to the loss of others. He was looking in a mirror and seeing the ghosts of his friends.
What We Can Learn From the "Too Soon" Era
The Too Soon... EP, containing both "Rich and Blind" and "Legends," serves as a time capsule. It represents a moment when rap was transitioning from the "bling" era into something much more psychological and internal.
Juice WRLD’s Rich and Blind lyrics remain relevant because the pressures he described haven't gone away. Social media has only made the "blindness" worse. Everyone is looking for the "rich" part, but very few are prepared for the isolation that comes with it.
The song ends abruptly. There is no long fade-out. There is no happy resolution.
It just stops.
Much like the lives he was mourning, the song is a fragment of something that could have been much bigger. It leaves you sitting in the silence, forced to think about the cost of fame.
Actionable Takeaways for Listeners and Creators
If you’re a fan of Juice WRLD or a creator trying to find your voice, there are real lessons buried in these lyrics beyond just the music.
- Prioritize Mental Health Over Performance: Juice’s lyrics prove that no amount of commercial success can fill a void left by unaddressed trauma or grief. If you're feeling "blind," reach out before the spotlight gets too bright.
- Study the "SoundCloud" Era Structure: For aspiring songwriters, Rich and Blind is a masterclass in using "vibe" and "mood" to carry a song. Notice how he uses repetitive vowel sounds to create a hypnotic effect.
- Recognize the Gilded Cage: Understand that the "Rich and Blind" phenomenon is real in many high-pressure industries. Success often brings a new set of blinkers.
- Honor the Influence: Juice showed that being "real" means acknowledging those who came before you. His tribute to X and Peep helped cement their legacies while defining his own.
The best way to respect the legacy of the Rich and Blind lyrics is to listen with empathy. Don't just hear the beat. Hear the warning. The song is a map of a mind under immense pressure, and while the artist is gone, the map remains for anyone else trying to find their way through the dark.