We’re often told rap is a young person’s game, but one of the year’s most noteworthy rap albums was helmed by a fifty-year-old. Jay Z is comfortably in his forties; Kanye will be forty in two years. And somehow Juicy J is forty but he seems particularly ageless—there’s When the Smoke Clears-era Three 6 Mafia, there’s Juicy J accepting an Oscar and appearing on his own show on MTV, then there’s 2011 Juicy J, attached to Wiz Khalifa’s Taylor Gang troupe, rapping with Kreayshawn, spawning catchphrases ("you say no to drugs—Juicy J can’t!"), and releasing free music at a furious clip, keeping up with the Lil B's of the world and rappers half his age.
Juicy J didn’t have to come back, but he did, and his career reached a logical conclusion with his third solo record, 2013’s Stay Trippy, which was surprisingly great then, and holds up now. At the time, it wasn’t hard to see some cynicism in Juicy J’s late-career moves—he appeared to be angling for the blog-space that spent so much time covering guys who directly bit his original style (somewhere SpaceGhostPurrp is sighing). But Juicy J is from blue-collar Memphis, all he does is work.
On the heels of the largely forgettable Blue Dream & Lean 2, 100% Juice drops all pretense and opens with the clearest mission statement possible: "There’s too much stupid-ass shit happening right now, it’s time to turn up." From there, it’s business as usual: dense, booming dark beats, hooks that mostly consist of a phrase shouted like a salutation, cataloging of various drugs taken and sexual escapades, then an occasional guest to break it up.
While Juicy J’s re-emergence came on the heels of Lex Luger, Mike WiLL, and Young Chop beats, now he’s playing in a contemporary field consisting of 808 Mafia, Sonny Digital, and Metro Boomin. Juicy J’s greatest asset has been his ability to make his surroundings his own. The same way he ran through those 2011 Lex Luger beats, he slides right into the spacey, trap-noir of 808 Mafia—"Still" runs a piano loop sounding straight out of Halloween as Juicy J sticks the landing on a vivid line like "she got my wife-beater on as a nightgown" and the punchline "you just looking for a quick come-up, I can feel it in the air like Phil Collins." How Juicy J rattles off these lines, in a way not unlike the now-infamous Migos triplet flow, but with an ascending and descending cadence that emphasizes the right syllables, is indicative of how effortless this comes to him. He never sounds tired, never phones it in. He’s the consummate pro.
Juicy J is funnier than most rappers and capable of getting the most ludicrous hooks stuck in your head ("I drop them beans in my lean" will haunt you for days) and he’s the rare rapper who commands respect from the people around him. Boosie’s vicious, borderline-disgusting verse on the "Film" remix is impossible to not run back a dozen times, demonstrating the intensity with which artists approach a Juicy J feature. Same goes for Lil Herb, who pops on "Ain’t No Rapper"; the change of scenery breathes new, vibrant life into the Chicago emcee’s scratchy, traditional gangster tropes. 100% Juice, while not a revelation, is sturdy and solid. A great artist can endlessly remake the same sounds and make it work, and the self-contained good time of 100% Juice adds a few new wrinkles.
