Juice Wrld on losing ‘Lucid Dreams’ money: ‘I really don’t give no f–k’

If you think that Juice Wrld is bitter about Sting banking a reported 85 percent of the royalties for “Lucid Dreams” — his 2018 hit that interpolates the former Police frontman’s 1993 single “Shape of My Heart” — think again.

To Juice, that lilting guitar line was worth every penny for the way it perfectly captured his wounded heart on the breakup song.

“I don’t really give no f - - k about s - - t like that,” says the 20-year-old singer-rapper, who will infuse Hammerstein Ballroom with his melancholy vibeology Monday and Tuesday. “The song is way more [valuable] than any amount of money. That song, it changed lives. That song saved lives. That song has gotten people through all types of dark situations . . . You can’t put a price tag on no s - - t like that.”

In fact, “Lucid Dreams” — which, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, surprisingly became one of the songs of summer 2018 — was more about healing than hitmaking for the artist born Jarad Higgins.

‘That song has gotten people through all types of dark situations . . . You can’t put a price tag on no s - - t like that.’

“A high-school breakup inspired me to write it,” says Juice, who grew up in the Chicago area. “And it connected with everybody ’cause, you know, everybody has breakups.”

While Juice hasn’t spoken to the object of his disaffection since he broke out with “Lucid Dreams” — “Nah, not at all,” he insists — he says she knows it’s about her. And after working through his heartbreak on his 2018 debut album, “Goodbye & Good Riddance,” he’s moved on with his new LP, “Death Race for Love” — released in March, it arrived just 10 months after its predecessor.

“‘Death Race for Love’ is about me finding love, pretty much,” says Juice, “and the first album was, like, me getting rid of love.”

Indeed, Juice — who says he is now “happily taken off the market” — credits his current boo for inspiring “She’s the One,” his favorite song on “Death Race for Love.” “Wake up from a dream/She’s my every, everything,” he sings over the dreamy midtempo groove.

Juice’s dreams of hip-hop stardom began when he was growing up listening to artists such as Lil Wayne, Tyler the Creator, Soulja Boy and — perhaps his most obvious inspiration — Kid Cudi. But it was the late, great Tupac Shakur who inspired his libationary handle.

“It was from the Tupac movie [1992’s ‘Juice’], ’cause I had the same cut,” he says, referring to the hairstyle of Tupac’s gangsta character, Bishop. “I had signed up for this rap competition at my school, and I didn’t have a name for myself, so I was just thinking really quick . . . and just blurted out ‘Juice.’ And then it just stuck after that pretty much.”

Although he first went by Juice the Kid, he eventually settled on Juice Wrld, dropping the “o” from “world” because someone else already had “Juice World” as a Twitter name.

While Sting would figure in his breakthrough, the “Shape of My Heart” singer wasn’t any real part of Juice’s musical influences before “Lucid Dreams.”

“Nah, I didn’t really know about him like that,” Juice says. “I didn’t even know it was [interpolating a Sting song] until after the beat was done. The producer had already dealt with it . . . My mom came downstairs as I was writing to it, and she was like, ‘Oh, this is a Sting song!’ And I went and looked it up.”

Now Juice has his own juice, buying himself a black-and-red Rolls-Royce truck after “Death Race for Love” debuted at No. 1. Still, his tastes are much simpler when it comes to his juice of choice: “Honestly, it would probably have to be Capri Sun — wild cherry.”

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