- ♪ You want me dead ♪ - A little morbid.
- ♪ I've been myself since birth, [bleep] ♪
- Oh, wait a minute. Hold it back, hold it back.
♪ (ragtime intro) ♪
- ♪ I still see your shadows in my room ♪
♪ Can't take back the love that I gave you ♪
- Oh, he's cute.
- ♪ ...why I love and I hate you ♪
♪ And I cannot change you... ♪
- I like his lyrics already.
- ♪ Easier said than done ♪ ♪ I thought you were the one ♪
- Well, that's an interesting effect.
- Where's his body? Ooh, that's weird.
- ♪ I won't let you forget me ♪
♪ You left me falling... ♪ - Oh, wow.
- ♪ ...landing inside my grave ♪
♪ I know that you want me dead ♪
- A little morbid.
- ♪ I take prescriptions... ♪ - I like the lyrics.
- I can understand the lyrics,
so that makes it more enjoyable for me.
- ♪ I have these lucid dreams ♪ ♪ Where I can't move a thing ♪
- I just love the graphics and the video.
- I mean, his voice is good.
- ♪ And I cannot change you, so I must replace you, oh ♪
♪ Easier said than done ♪
- That's kind of sad. I was listening for a message,
and I found myself very depressed.
- The artistic look, the things that when you first started,
like he's in the floor, his head coming up out of the floor,
you know, it's different.
- ♪ I admit it, another ho got me finished ♪
♪ Broke my heart ♪ ♪ Oh no, you didn't ♪
- So, if a girl breaks his heart, she's automatically a ho?
- Boy, if I was a young person listening to this music,
I wouldn't be encouraged to do anything.
- ♪ She'll be gone by tomorrow ♪ ♪ Who am I kidding? ♪
♪ All this jealousy and agony... ♪ - Oh my god. He is insecure.
- ♪ All girls are the same ♪ - Hmm.
- Kind of like a long time ago Chris Brown for some reason.
I don't know why he reminds me of him a little bit.
- Yeah, I like these effects.
- Wow.
- ♪ Fuck givin', I'ma take not borrow ♪
- But you're young. You're gonna have a lot
of other chances, young man. Some of the rap is sort of
so in your face and so, you know, aggressive,
that this is nice for a change.
- He's a very creative artist. I mean, his graphics are done well.
- He's got this clear lyric format like Drake,
easy to follow and understand.
- (FBE) So, these next two songs don't have music videos.
It's just audio, but we still have the lyrics up
on the screen so you can follow along. - Oh, okay!
- ♪ Girl, you know I'm far from perfect ♪
♪ I won't lead you on ♪
♪ But tonight is feeling perfect ♪ ♪ It's your favorite song ♪
♪ I know that mood right ♪
- This one reminds me of Drake a little.
- ♪ Dance in the moonlight ♪ - Well, we all like the idea
of dancing in the moonlight. That's romantic.
- ♪ Dance in the moonlight, oh ♪ - Okay, I memorized the lyrics.
- Oh, he probably got another girl.
- ♪ It's something 'bout that dress, the way it fit you ♪
♪ I don't wanna tell you to take it off ♪
♪ But baby take it off ♪ - Mediocre lyrics
compared to the prior.
- ♪ I've been myself since birth, [bleep] ♪
- Oh, wait a minute. Hold it back, hold it back.
- ♪ She say that I'm pretty ♪
- It's a certain sameness to it all. There isn't enough difference.
- ♪ ...too deep ♪ ♪ I'm feelin' like a surgeon ♪
♪ Girl, you know I'm far from perfect ♪
- He's just going on and on and on.
I don't see a hook.
- I don't see that much different from so many thousands
of other songs.
- He probably met another girl. He's young.
They fall in and out of love.
- (FBE) This last song, "Legend," was written as a tribute song
to rappers XXXTentacion and Lil Peep,
who both died recently very young, Lil Peep at just 21 from an overdose
and XXXTentacion at 20 from a shooting.
- Right, I think I heard about that on the news.
- Somebody snuffed him out before he could grow and mature
and be who he is going to be. It makes me angry.
- ♪ I usually have an answer to the question ♪
♪ But this I'm gon' be quiet, this time ♪
♪ Ain't nothing like the feeling of uncertainty ♪
♪ The eeriness of silence ♪ - That's another sad song.
- ♪ This time, it was so unexpected ♪
♪ Last time, it was the drugs he was lacing ♪
♪ All legends fall in the making ♪
- Yeah, a lot of very successful people
have died young.
- ♪ What's the 27 Clu-u-u-ub? ♪
♪ We ain't making it past 21 ♪ - Wow. So sad.
- ♪ So I always gotta keep a gun ♪
- There's too much violence out there.
- ♪ That's the world we live in now ♪
- This has more merit to me than the last two.
- ♪ 'Cause all the legends seem to die out ♪
- It's the price of that fame.
- ♪ I'm so confused ♪
- We're hearing a little more of what his voice can do in this one.
He does have a great voice.
- ♪ The cruel, cold world... ♪ - Cruel, cold world.
He doesn't know the half of it yet.
- ♪ The end of the world ♪ ♪ Is it coming soon? ♪
- Okay, this is a little depressing.
- The video and the song themselves are sort of mediocre.
It's the lyrics that just pound away at you.
- (FBE) So, that was rapper Juice WRLD.
- Juice WRLD? Is he into health food?
- I love it. It's different. It's creative.
- (FBE) He's only 19 years old. - Really?
- Wow.
- (FBE) And started making music in 2015 while still in high school.
It paid off quickly as he signed to a major label in March,
a deal that is reportedly worth more than $3 million.
- Stop it. - It does seem like it's coming
from a real young person's perspective,
where everything is so immediately tragic.
- (FBE) From what you saw and heard, is there anything special
that stands out about his music, rapping style, or visuals
that would be worth a multi-million-dollar record deal?
- I don't think so.
- The only thing that I'll give them are the words,
the sentence structure, and the story behind this last video.
There is a story behind that.
- He has a good voice. He is a sing-rapper
rather than a rapper-rapper, because he does sing his lyrics.
- I really understood what he was saying.
It wasn't a whole lot of swearing.
- What I really like is he doesn't use derogatory language.
A lot of these young kids look up to all these stars, right?
So, keep it clean. And he's doing a good job.
- (FBE) Juice WRLD's mother is a devout Christian
who banned all rap music from her home.
- Okay, don't blame her.
- (FBE) And the story is Juice WRLD's cousins
introduced him to rap music. But since he was unable
to listen to rap songs at home, he would instead recite the lyrics
and often make up his own lyrics
when he failed to remember the original words,
a skill that helped him when he began
writing his own material. - Interesting.
- (FBE) Growing up, were you ever banned
from listening to certain genres of music or artists?
- No, because, as you know, I'm an elder.
We didn't have all this hip hop.
- No, I wasn't. I grew up in the '30s and '40s,
so the pop music was entirely different.
- First name that I can think of is Elvis Presley.
That was devil's music back then. I had to sneak and watch him.
- I don't know if I was ever banned from listening, because remember,
we didn't have all the media.
To try and keep something from your kids
is extremely difficult now.
- (FBE) So, some critics point out that Juice WRLD's success comes
from the fact that his rapping style is genre bending,
combining rap with emotional lyrics that's reminiscent of emo rock music
that was popular in the early 2000s, characterized by emotional
and personal lyrics often dealing with failed romances.
- Right, well, Kendrick Lamar is kind of like that, isn't he?
- (FBE) As an elder, what are your thoughts
on young audiences embracing these sad lyrics
in what's normally seen as an aggressive genre,
and how does it compare with what the youth
were listening to when you were growing up?
- I don't have a problem with them listening
to these sad lyrics as long as it doesn't talk
about, you know, doing drugs or taking their life.
- If you keep on putting that in a young person's head,
like, feel depressed because someone left you,
it's, like, brainwashing them.
- Sad, because if they're not careful, they can get caught up
in that kind of music, and so shall their life be.
- The music that I listened to when I was growing up,
there was a message.
And you don't hear too much of that nowadays.
- (FBE) Well, we've covered a wide variety of rappers
with the elders. Where does Juice WRLD rank
for you from everything you've seen here on the show
or listened to on your own?
- Maybe not really bottom-bottom, but maybe the second to the bottom.
I want to be happy.
- I don't see him moving out and venturing out
in any other forms of music, and that's a shame.
- I would say he ranks pretty high. He tells it well.
He sings well. And he enunciates.
- I think the guy's creative. He could sustain quite a while.
- He's on an upward spiral.
That's how I rank him. He's moving up.
- I'm gonna check his music out, 'cause he'll probably become
one of my favorites. I could put that in my car in a CD
and just drive.
- He's got to look at who he's competing with.
Make sure that you're able to compete.
And I think if he's with a major label,
he's got a team now that can help him do that.
- Thanks for watching this episode of Elders React.
Shoutout to Layla Slays.
- Don't be too sad. Make sure you subscribe.
- Shoutout to awesomegirl 88.
- Hi, guys. JC here, producer here at FBE.
Thanks so much for watching this episode of Elders React.
Make sure to check out the React Channel,
where you can see the reactors gaming,
competing, and so much more. Bye, guys.