Juice WRLD‘s ex-girlfriend claims the rapper took “up to three” Percocet tablets a day before he died after turning to drugs to cope with his depression.
The rapper passed away following a “medical emergency” at a Chicago airport last Sunday (December 8).
The FBI have since claimed that Juice took “several unknown pills” before he died, and one of Juice’s associates also reportedly told authorities that the star had a Percocet problem.
Alexia Smith, who reportedly dated the rapper for a year in 2018, now claims he was introduced to hard drugs through record labels who were vying for his business early on his career.
She said that he turned to lean – a mixture of codeine cough syrup, hard candy and a soft drink – and Percocet after struggles with his mental health and depression.
Smith told the Daily Mail: “Seven days away from me, he ended up in the hospital. When he was away from me for seven days, he ended up hospitalised from collapsing on stage. One year away from me, and he’s dead.”
She claims she tried to help him get clean but there were many too bad influences around him. “Me and his mom were the only ones telling him to stop because everyone else was doing drugs too. People just gave him things all the time.
“But I remember on the tour bus, we got into one of our biggest fights ever because he was drinking a bunch of lean like normal, but then someone gave him a Tesla pill which is one of the strongest Ecstasy pills ever.
“He said he was going to go to the bathroom and snort it. I freaked out. That’s strong enough for four people,” she added. “I stopped him and told him no. I don’t know what the fuck would have happened. He probably would have taken it.”
Tributes have been pouring in for the late star, including from Sting whose 1993 track ‘Shape of My Heart’ was reworked to create Juice WRLD’s hit ‘Lucid Dreams’.
“This is such a tragic loss for the world of music, a young life with so much potential and a unique and precious talent,” Sting said in a statement sent to NME. “‘Lucid Dreams’ was my favourite of all the many interpolations of ‘Shape of my Heart’, it will resonate for many years to come. My sincere condolences to the family.”
Juice WRLD’s last gig was on November 30 when he performed in Ballarat, Australia at Spilt Milk Festival after a string of dates in both Australia and New Zealand.
Footage from his final tour in Australia includes a performance of an unreleased song called ‘Sitting Ducks’.
