Juice WRLD's 'Legends Never Die' Becomes Biggest Posthumous Album Debut in 2020

Only seven months after his unexpected death at 21 years old, the rapper is making history by debuting at number one on the Billboard charts on its largest week in 2020 which confirms that he left too soon.

Juice WRLD’s posthumous record “Legends Never Die” opened as the top No.1 album on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Not only that, but the album also captured the largest week for any album in 2020 after having earned 497,000 units in the U.S.

“Legends Never Die” also made it in the largest streaming week of 2020 and the fourth-largest streaming week for an album ever. It is also the rapper’s second No.1 album after his 2019 album “Death Race for Love” which made its debut at No.1 on March 23 that year with 165,000 units.

MAKING HISTORY

Besides being a singer with a different approach to hip-hop music, Juice WRLD's recent album has been a hit since it is the first one released after the rapper suffered a seizure and died in Chicago over an accidental drug overdose of oxycodone and codeine.

According to the metrics considered by Billboard, the album also owned the biggest week for a hip-hop album or by a male artist in two years coming second after Travis Scott’s “Astroworld” from 2018.

“Legends Never Die” also runs as the biggest posthumous album debut since Notorious B.I.G.'s “Life After Death” and 2Pac's “R U Still Down,” both released in 1997.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the week’s most popular albums in the United States measured in album units based on a multi-metric system that comprises album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA), according to Billboard.

In the week that ends on July 16, Juice WRLD’s album replaces Pop Smoke’s also posthumous album “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon,” which was at No.1 the week before. The chart will be fully posted on Billboard's website on July 21.

LAST ALBUM

Comparisons between Pop Smoke’s debut album, “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” and Juice WRLD’s “Legends Never Die” have been frequently made even after their deaths. However, both rappers were innovators who were looking for different ways for hip-hop music to be heard.

The latest Juice WRLD album has been recognized as a great follow up after his first works: “Goodbye & Good Riddance” of 2018, “Death Race for Love” of 2019, and his collaboration with Future on “WRLD on Drugs,” in 2018.

The album gathers tracks he had already finished when he was still alive and others he was still working on. Although his music is

emotions involving anxiety, depression, and drug addiction, this time he gets a bit more romantic instead of his usual disturbed obsessions.