Marshmello featured on Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die, his first posthumous album from July 2020, with the eerie track “Come & Go” and “Hate The Other Side” featuring The Kid Laroi and Polo G. This June, the enigmatic DJ and producer teased more unreleased music was on the way.
“We made a ton of music together. In person. All the time,” Marshmello told Z100 New York. “We made a bunch of music, … and they’re gonna see the light of day.”
Today (October 14), Marshmello made good on that promise with the ethereal single “Bye Bye.” The Stripmall-directed music video follows a teenager into an abandoned arcade, where he spots a “Bye Bye” video game. He puts a quarter in, and the machine comes to life — including an animated Juice singing the chorus, “I’m out of pills / You’re out of lies / It stays dark outside / Even when it’s daytime / Like, bye-bye.” According to Marshmello’s statement via press release, “Bye Bye” was made the night he met Juice.
The verse features a reference to Percocet, which is especially heartbreaking because Juice (real name Jarad Higgins) died from an accidental overdose of oxycodone and codeine on December 8, 2019. Lil Bibby later claimed that the 21-year-old emo-rap star had agreed to enter rehab shortly before his death.
“My main thing with everything that me and Juice did is I’m keeping it the same way it was when he was alive and we were both sitting there, like, ‘We like this,'” Marshmello added during his Z100 New York appearance, calling Juice “probably the most talented person I’ve ever met.” He added, “I’m not changing it. I’m not remixing it. I’m adding stuff. No, I’m just keeping it that same way. … What we both agreed on in the studio, we like this, that’s what’s gonna come out.”
Legends Never Die hit No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart. Fighting Demons, Juice’s second posthumous album, dropped last December around the release of the HBO documentary Juice WRLD: Into The Abyss. The latest album included collaborative tracks with Justin Bieber, Polo G, Suga from BTS, and Trippie Redd.
Watch the video for “Bye Bye” above.
