The Kid LAROI has issued a response to Juice WRLD‘s name being removed from the artwork for the pair’s joint cover of Kim Petras‘ ‘Reminds Me’.
The collaboration – titled ‘Reminds Me Of You’ – came out on December 8, 2020, which was the one-year anniversary of Juice WRLD’s death.
READ MORE: Juice WRLD, 1998-2019 – the NME obituary
Last Friday (March 24), a Juice WRLD fan account on Twitter (@x2bucky) pointed out that the animated cover art for the team-up had been seemingly “updated” and no longer features the late rapper’s name.
The message was accompanied by both the old and new covers side-by-side. “Left is new, right Is OG,” the tweet explained.
Taking to Twitter last Sunday (March 26), The Kid LAROI – real name Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard – claimed he “had NOTHING to do with” the edit and “had no idea it was even a thing until now”.
The Australian artist continued: “I’ve hit the label and asked them to change it back.. I’m sorry & genuinely have no clue why it was changed without my permission.”
In a follow-up post, Howard wrote: “I would never approve of that. EVER.” You can see the tweets below.
I would never approve of that. EVER.
— charlton (@thekidlaroi) March 26, 2023
The new version of the artwork without Juice WRLD’s name is still being displayed on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music at the time of writing.
Back in 2021, The Kid LAROI opened up about witnessing Juice WRLD’s final moments.
The two artists were travelling in a group from Los Angeles to Chicago at the time of the Chicago rapper’s death. Juice WRLD passed away after suffering a drug-induced seizure at Midway Airport in Chicago. He was 21 years old.
“I kinda froze, I really didn’t know like what the fuck I could do to help him,” The Kid LAROI recalled. “We were all just sitting there just panicking…”
Last month, Juice WRLD’s friend and Grade A Productions label head Lil Bibby confirmed that the late rapper’s final posthumous album was “in the works”.
“Let’s celebrate the life of Juice,” he added. “No more mourning, I want everyone that Juice loved while he was here to help celebrate, especially his fans who he loved!”
The post The Kid LAROI responds to Juice WRLD’s name being removed from ‘Reminds Me Of You’ collab artwork appeared first on NME.