Vic Mensa spoke with TMZ and the topic of Juice WRLD’s tragic passing came up. Mensa was asked about Lil Pump cutting “Drug Addicts” from his Rolling Loud set out of respect for Juice WRLD, who suffered a fatal seizure after allegedly swallowing multiple pills during a raid of his private jet by federal agents.
Mensa agreed that it was the right decision, while also saying that the drug culture in rap music should get a large part of the blame for the passing of Juice WRLD and other young rappers from the SoundCloud rap era.
“I think that, as members of the hip-hop community, we need to take responsibility for the things that we say. We need to recognize that the sh*t we talk about influences children. So when we are steady pushing a message of lean and Percocets and Xans, we are polluting the minds of the youth.
“We have a responsibility to give it to them in a real way. Not to say that you can’t talk about your real life and the things that are happening but I think that we need to start holding each other and ourselves accountable for our glorification of the drug culture, 100 percent. That’s just what it is. Anything else, that’s parasitic to our people to just act like this is the shit to be on lean all the time.
“And when we see these things happening to the young brothers, like rest in peace, Juice. Too early, 21. And rap is much to blame for it.”
Juice WRLD passed away at age 21 on Sunday, December 8 after suffering seizures at Chicago’s Midway Airport in the early hours of the morning. Juice WRLD was transported to the local hospital before ultimately being declared dead. Juice WRLD had arrived in Chicago after taking a private jet from Los Angeles.
According to the report, Juice had taken “several unknown pills” before landing in Chicago and suffering his seizures. Members of the rapper’s team reportedly revealed the information to law enforcement. There was also a bottle of codeine cough syrup that was found.
In addition, 70-pounds of marijuana was seized from the plane.
Two members of Juice WRLD’s entourage — Chris Long and Henry Dean — were also arrested for possession of handguns. Both men were reportedly members of the rapper’s security team. charged with one misdemeanor count of unlawful use of a weapon. Dean, meanwhile, was charged with carrying a concealed weapon at an airport and one count of possession of a high capacity magazine and piercing bullets.