Juice WRLD Makes Posthumous Appearance With Cordae in Lyrical Lemonade’s ‘Doomsday’ Video
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The multimedia company Lyrical Lemonade rose to a height of prominence in the late 2010s through its music videos, helmed by director Cole Bennett and starring the biggest stars of the SoundCloud rap era. The rapper Juice WRLD appeared frequently on their roster of collaborators prior to his sudden death in 2019, working closely with Bennett dating back to videos for “Lucid Dreams” and “All Girls Are the Same.” For the first single from a forthcoming debut collaborative album, Lyrical Lemonade tapped into its roots with a posthumous appearance from Juice WRLD and new bars from Cordae.
“Doomsday” is built around Dr. Dre’s production on Eminem’s 1999 single “Role Model,” the opening lines of which open the accompanying Bennett-directed music video. The clip locks in on Cordae while he raps about being a less-than-ideal role model himself. Then, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, the rapper morphs into Juice WRLD. Cordae’s body and movements are the same, even his hair, but his face has been replaced with the late rapper’s. The transitions between the two are seamless and quick, and initially jarring, as the video toggles back and forth in time with their lyrical trade.
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“Me and my nigga Juice WRLD takin’ over the universe/You knew it first, got my mom Chanel with the newest purse/Birkin bag, never hurt to ask, ‘What type of purse is that?’/Something that’s very fuckin’ expensive, I deserve to brag,” Cordae raps. In the video, his response gets him slapped — and as quickly as he can recover, he’s morphed back into Juice WRLD again. “I murder tracks, this isn’t mumble, it’s murder rap,” Juice WRLD declares. “Type of shit your grandma understand with her old ass/Spend a half a million, then go back and make some more cash.
“Doomsday” marks the first collaboration released between Cordae and Juice WRLD. In a statement about the song, Cordae shared a simple message: “Long Live Juice WRLD.”
The Lyrical Lemonade album promises more powerhouse pairings across its to-be-announced tracklist.
“I’d just love to expand on everything and keep doing what I’m doing now but on a larger level. We sold out the shows and I’d eventually love to do a festival,” Bennett told Rolling Stone in 2017 just before the company really kicked into high-gear. “Through the videos [I’d like] to take everything to the next level. I wanna bring back early 2000s music videos where everything is really thought out and everything is really well directed, and is very high budget, ’cause I feel like things were so much different then, and eventually I’d like to get to that point. But for now, keep with what I’m doing and inspiring kids.”
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