In Psalm 13, David expresses bluntly his feeling of hopelessness: “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” ( Psalm 13:1). Christian exemplars of faith from Paul to David have never been spared from struggling with hopelessness.

Feelings of hopelessness are familiar both to unbelievers and to those who have a relationship with God. At times, we see Paul expressing great hope even in the worst circumstances ( Acts 16:25-31), but at other times, he felt great despair ( 2 Corinthians 1:8). In a way, Juice WRLD’s struggle was the same as that of the Apostle Paul: “What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” ( Romans 7:15). Nevertheless, drugs seemed to him to be the only way to manage the pain and stress in his life. Juice WRLD was fully aware that using drugs as a solution did not actually solve his problems. Even worse, as he sings about in “Fast,” the privileges of riches and fame that were supposed to make life better didn’t help him at all: His music reflects the pain and hopelessness of a person whose only comfort comes from the very thing that terrorizes him. Juice WRLD was unable to get away from the pleasure and comfort of drugs but also lived in constant fear of what his drug use was doing to him.

If it wasn’t for the pills, I wouldn’t be hereīut if I keep taking these pills, I won’t be hereįor Juice WRLD, drugs were the problem and the solution: they helped him manage his depression and traumatic past, but also, as he predicted in “Wishing Well,” led to his premature death. 3 Juice WRLD sums up his relationship with drugs in two lines in his single “Wishing Well”: Juice WRLD at times rapped about drugs as a way to have fun ( Take a pill for the thrill, have a relapse) 1 or as a solution to depression or anxiety ( Codeine kills the drama and the trauma in my heart), 2 but he also shared his own struggle with drug addiction and its harmful effects ( I start takin’ the drugs and now the drugs take me). Many rappers present an uncomplicated view of drugs as recreational substances that double as status symbols.

Juice wrld wishing well