In an intense scene from the new Juice WRLD documentary Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss, the late rapper’s fellow MC and friend, The Kid LAROi, opens up for the first time about the night 21-year-old Juice died after suffering a seizure at Midway Airport in his native Chicago.
Wearing dark shades and speaking in a halting, emotional tone, the 18-year-old Australian star described his late mentor and “big brother”‘s final moments. The Tommy Oliver-directed documentary debuted on HBO Max last week and amid the tributes to the “Come & Go” rapper born Jarad Higgins, the Kid offered a chilling account of his friend’s passing and the shock and confusion it sent through the team on the tarmac that night.
“I remembered walking off and seeing through the window, the police and s–t, thinkin’ like, ‘What the f–k?’” the Kid LAROi said in the doc. “They said, ‘Everybody get your passports out.’ I was sitting down and Juice was sitting across from me… [Juice WRLD crew member] G Money was sitting right there. I remembered Juice and G Money shook hands.”
Very quickly, as LAROi described it, he “kinda froze” and asked the authorities what he could do to help his friend, whose death was later attributed to oxycodone and codeine toxicity. “He was so ill. I was just sitting there panicking. I was like, ‘What the f–k?’ And at first, we just thought he was having a seizure and then the blood started coming out of his mouth and his nose. Then everybody obviously started freaking out way more then. Then the police came over to us and handcuffed us all. They handcuffed us in a line and they were was like, ‘Get the f–k away from him!’”
LAROi said everyone in Juice’s crew was handcuffed in a line — except for Ally Lotti, the rapper’s girlfriend — with Lotti telling police, “‘Yo, enough.’ They cuffed me and they tellin’ Ally, like, ‘Chill out, he’s fine, chill out.’ We are all lookin’ like, ‘Bro, he’s bleedin’.’”
While traveling home to Chicago on a flight from LA during the early hours of Dec. 8, 2019 the “Lucid Dreams” artist suffered a seizure at the Midway International Airport. He was quickly transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead hours later in what officials deemed an accident.
The young Aussie star and Juice had a long history, with LAROi opening shows for WRLD in Sydney and Melbourne in 2019 — and later signing with Juice’s managers, Grade A Productions. The two also collaborated on the LAROi song “Go” from his debut 2020 F–k Love mixtape. The Kid also later honored his mentor ahead of the first anniversary of his death by releasing their cover of Kim Petras’ “Reminds Me.”
Watch The Kid LAROi discuss Juice WRLD’s death below.
