Platinum-selling super-producer Benny Blanco has worked with everyone from Rihanna to Kanye West, Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd – the list goes on and on. But to Blanco, no one has quite measured up to the late Juice WRLD.

Talking to Variety in a new interview ahead of the release of his Friends Keep Secrets 2 album, the “Moves Like Jagger” producer explained how their relationship came about and why he feels so passionately about him.

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“He was the most talented person that I have ever worked with,” Benny Blanco said of Juice WRLD. “It’s not just about the fact that we lost him; I’d say that if he was 60 and still around. I reached out to him when he had 9,000 Twitter followers. No deal. Nothing. We got in the studio. Most people you get into a studio, people pile into the room, you come up with ideas, write some down, get some melodies, come out of the room, fill the melodies in, put some lyrics on — it’s the process.

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“He goes in the studio, tells me to load the song, does the song, front to back, beyond the melody — lyrics too, full song,” he continued. “Metaphors and deep shit are flying; it’s one long freestyle. Then he does it again. Then he does it one more time. You pretty much have three entire hit songs, if you just change out the beats. He could do 10 songs just like that in a day. He was so unbelievably prolific. He had thousands of songs just like that.”

The pair worked together on songs like “Black & White” and “Graduation,” but their time together was tragically cut short when Juice passed in December 2019 at just 21-years-old after suffering a fatal seizure at Chicago’s Midway Airport. Despite rumors to the contrary, his friend and manager Lil Bibby denies that Juice had downed a bunch of Percocet pills in an effort to avoid police.