“Doomsday” by Lyrical Lemonade, Juice WRLD & Cordae
Lyrical Lemonade, as you may already know, isn’t an actual musician but rather, up until this point, has primarily been an internet-based initiative specializing in creating music videos and giving exposure to up-and-coming rappers. Said initiative is held down by one Cole Michael Bennett, who himself has become sort of a celebrity in the process.
And now he is venturing further into the music industry proper, as “Doomsday”, which was released through Lyrical Lemonade in conjunction with Def Jam, is reportedly the first single from what will be Bennett’s brand’s first compilation album. And of course he directed this track’s music video as well as, to note, serving as one of the song’s co-writers.
The other credited writers, besides Cordae and the late Juice WRLD, are Eminem, Mel-Man and Dr. Dre. The latter two are behind a number of classic Slim Shady and Dr. Dre tracks from back in the day, including 1999’s “Role Model” from The Slim Shady LP, from which the instrumental used on the song “Doomsday” was derived. As such, Mel-Man and Dr. Dre are also credited as the producers of this song which, according to Genius, is actually classified as a remix of “Role Model“.
A “LIVE” JUICE WRLD TRACK
Juice WRLD unexpectedly passed away in late 2019 at the age of 21. However, as of yet, exiting the mortal plane has not necessarily hindered his music career, as since then we’ve been treated to two studio albums under his name, as well as a number of non-album singles on Juice’s behalf, as well as his vocals being featured on seemingly countless other songs.
For instance, “Doomsday” was just released a few days ago, on 23 June 2023. And since then Young Thug dropped a track, titled “Money“, which also features the late rapper.
In the case of “Money”, as with most of WRLD’s posthumous collaborations, it appears as if they took a verse he recorded elsewhere and added it to the track. But as for “Doomsday”, he actually participated in the live recording of this song which transpired earlier in 2019. And this marks his only official collaboration with Cordae to date.
As implied by Cordae, the reason they didn’t proceed to shoot a music video and furthermore presumably release the track back then was because Juice opted out of doing so due to the way their careers were taking off at the time.
So the clip itself was filmed shortly before the release of the track, i.e. now in mid-2023. And by the looks of things, the way they incorporated Juice’s visuals is along the lines of featuring Cordae’s body throughout.
But during the segments in which WRLD is rapping, the face on the body changes to that of an AI-generated Juice WRLD. And whereas Complex has described it all as being “unsettling”, it’s kinda dope if you can actually notice the facial changes, considering that Juice and Cordae sorta look alike.
THE LYRICS OF “DOOMSDAY”
The song commences with an intro in which, most notably, Cordae acknowledges that he and Juice WRLD are rhyming “on a Eminem beat”. Marshall Mathers is also the first rapper whose image actually pops up on the music video to “Doomsday”. So, as noted earlier, this track can be taken as an official remix of “Role Model”.
And as for the track’s singular verse, what it reads like is a freestyle of sorts, i.e. the rappers not really adhering to any particular topic per se, rather using the opportunity primarily to big themselves up.
So these kinds of songs, generally speaking, can be taken as braggadocious in nature. But unlike a standard single, if you will, the goal really isn’t to pay attention to what the vocalists are saying per se. Instead, “Doomsday” is more about listeners being wowed by their lyrical skills, which as presented are quite impressive, especially the way the pair perform in unison. And it isn’t hard to imagine that if Juice were still around, he and Cordae by this point would have recorded more collaborations together.
