In May 2018, American rapper Juice WRLD released his track ‘Lucid Dreams’ to critical acclaim. Debuting at the 74th slot on Billboard’s Hot 100, the song went on to accrue over 2 billion streams on Spotify alone.
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‘Lucid Dreams’ is built around a singular sample that kicks off right at the beginning of the track and plays throughout the rest of the record. This sample was taken from one of the most significant yet unlikely sources you may have expected. So let’s dive into where the sample came from, what the sample thinks of its usage, and some other fun facts around the release.
Where Is The Sample In “Lucid Dreams” By Juice WRLD From?
The sample that forms the track’s foundation is built around the famous song ‘Shape Of My Heart” by the performing artist Sting.
The sample can be most easily heard in the original mix around the 00:10 mark and plays throughout most of the track.
You can hear the sample in the track below:
Fun Facts About “Lucid Dreams” By Juice WRLD
“Lucid Dreams” Saw Two Releases
While the song was officially released in May of 2018, it was not the first time the track was released. The artist self-released the track on his SoundCloud page in ,June the year before it saw the official release we know today.
Sting Is The Majority Stake Holder
At least as of November 2018, Sting holds the rights to 85% of the original song. And while he is the majority stakeholder of the popular hit track, he admitted that Juice WRLD’s track is his favorite version of “Shape of my Heart,” (At least according to CNN)
Yellowcard Wanted Their Piece Of The Pie…
The used-to-be-cool band Yellowcard came out swinging with a claim against the artist that ‘Lucid Dreams’ copied the main melodic structure of their song “Holly Wood Died.” They tried taking the claim to court in October of 2019.
Check out the song in question below.
…But Quietly Tapped Out
After Juice WRLD’s death, his mother was prepared to come to court to defend her song in the claim against Yellowcard.
This caused Yellowcard to quietly tap out of the settlement claim in July 2020. The band’s lawyer soon said that the band expressed sentiments towards Juice WRLD and his family.
It Was More That Just A Song
In an interview with Lyrical Lemonade in June of 2018, the artist stated that the song was made in a defacto ‘therapy session’ while he was going through a stage of intense relationship problems.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
