“Wandered to LA” by Juice WRLD & Justin Bieber

“Wandered to LA” is a love song. The shtick, if you will, is that both of the featured relationships are troubled, yet ones which the vocalists endure in the name of true love. And the title comes into play with the chorus, as rendered by Juice WRLD, being set in L.A. Or as he puts it, he came to the titular city “hoping to explore”, not actually expecting to fall in love or anything like that.  But unexpectedly, he does end up being smitten by a lady that materializes at his “hotel room door”. 

And no, she doesn’t come off as being akin to a groupie. Rather Juice’s girlfriend also happens to be his “plug” or, more simply put, the vocalist’s drug dealer.

So the two of them end up doing Xan*ys, so on and so forth – fans of Juice WRLD already know how he got down. And as noted earlier, their romance appears as a troubled one, perhaps even including some domestic violence, though the vocalist doesn’t go into much detail in that regard. 

And he concludes the verse with an interesting statement that ‘fantasy became reality only for one of them’. This is something we will take as meaning that only one of the parties involved is truly fulfilled by this romance. But again, there is no elaboration as to what that statement actually means, though the implication, all lyrics considered, would be that Juice feels as if he got the short end of the stick.

Justin Beiber steps in

Meanwhile, Justin’s issues with his addressee don’t read as if they have anything to do with drugs or violence. Instead their relationship comes off as an on-again/off-again type of affair. His shorty seems to be under the impression that such a modus operandi is good for their romance.

But the Biebs is rather like she needs to stay put and ‘give him the lovin’ that he needs’. So it’s sorta like he’s trying to convince her that they need to settle down, while she’s more inclined to engage in wandering on her own, occasionally doing her own thing without him.

The Long and Short of “Wandered to LA”

So both of the vocalists have their own respective relationship issues, but in a way they’re also one in the same. With Juice WRLD it’s like his sweetheart is being untruthful. And this is perhaps understandable considering that she’s a drug dealer. Furthermore, this perceived characteristic of his lover presumably contributes to the previously postulated domestic violence. 

And as for Justin, sometimes his honeybun prefers to be without him, even when he is in need of her. And the way in which both of these situations are similar is that the ladies appear to be more independent than the vocalists prefer.

Juice WRLD

Juice WRLD, as you likely already know, passed away in late 2019 as the result of an accidental drug overdose. He was only 21 at the time. And despite having already topped the Billboard 200 via his second studio album, Death Race for Love (2019), was still considered an up-and-coming artist. 

So his departure, as is the established norm with rappers who die prematurely, has been such that even afterwards songs continue to be released in his name, i.e. recordings he laid down that didn’t come out while he was actually alive being released later. For instance, Juice’s third studio album, “Legends Never Die”, came out in mid-2020. 

More about “Wandered to LA”

“Wandered to LA”, which was made public on 3 December 2021, is a single from his fourth studio album, “Fighting Demons”, with the song itself having first been teased back in 2018.  And said LP the product of Grade A Productions and Interscope Records.

Juice regularly teamed up with other A list musicians, even prior to his passing. But this outing marks the first time he’s dropped a track, if you will, alongside Justin Bieber.

Both Juice and the Biebs are credited with writing this song, alongside Omer Fedi and the track’s producers, Louis Bell and HARV.