Musical style
Higgins stated his musical influences as being genre-wide going from rock music to rap music. Higgins stated that his biggest influences were rappers , , and British rock singer . Juice Wlrd was among the ranks of openly vulnerable artists born from the scene inspired by West's influential fourth album, (2008). writer Michael Saponara claimed, "If West and his sparse were a tree, it would have grown another branch with the blossoming art displayed by fellow Chicago native Juice WRLD in 2018." During an interview with All Def Music, Juice Wrld imparted, "I was singing '' like I had shit to be sad about. Kanye is a time traveler. That n---a went to damn near 2015 and came back with some sauce." His other influences included , , , , , , and .
Higgins' music has been branded as "emo" and "rock" leaning, "genre-bending" with music focusing on "every broken heart, every wounded feeling." With a penchant for short, -heavy songs, Juice Wrld seemed a leading figure for the current era of hip-hop. In 2018, the streaming platform named "" its fastest growing genre. Juice Wrld achieved arguably the most mainstream success of any artist in the sub-genre. This was boosted by his collaboration with frontman . Juice Wrld himself considered the label to be both negative and positive. He felt that music sometimes has to be a bit dark to reflect his belief that the world is not really a light or a happy place.
Juice said that "Lucid Dreams" was the only track from that he actually wrote, while the rest was done . Rather than write down his rhymes, Juice Wrld crafted whole songs in a few minutes by way of off-the-cuff rhyming. His songwriting process most of the time invloved freestyling lyrics in leud of writing them down. When he did write songs, it usually began with hearing a beat and instantaneously conceiving an idea. Wrld sometimes found himself alone with an idea for a song and afraid that he wasn't going to remember it hours later when arriving at the studio. For this reason, he sometimes took a voice memo or simply just ended up writing the whole song if it was something he desired to dive deeper into.
Lyrical themes
Higgins saw the value in his position as one of very few contemporary artists who could compose soul-bearing and but remain comfortable over classic hip hop beats. Rather than eschewing it, his freestyles emphasize and feel indebted to the art form's tradition. He was asked for his opinion on why freestyles no longer are considered the in as they once were. He replied, "Stuff is just changing, that's all. We're moving into a new era of music. I feel like it's not necessarily a good thing to forget where shit started, but shit is changing." Though his songs do not always feature very technical lyricism, intricate or tongue-twisting wordplay, Higgins managed to deliver inventive flows and memorable bars during his freestyles.
Higgins' most successful singles express melodic, -inspired compositions that exhibit his songwriting skill. His songs harbor melodic to compliment their melancholic subject matter. Higgins claimed he talked about things others are thinking about but afraid to speak on, such as being vulnerable and hurt. Having built a following through , Higgins offered lyrics that touch on heartbreak and fragmented feelings. Though not entirely groundbreaking, his musical approach provided a sense of familiarity that heartbroken adolescents of the current generation could gravitate towards. Higgins maintained that he only wrote from personal experience, and found strength in his pain and vulnerability. While the lyrical content of songs often center around heartache and bitterness, there are occasionally more boastful lines and creative references.
