COVER STORY: POP SMOKE
SHOW DISCIPLINE
COVER STORY: POP SMOKE
LONG LIVE POP
Pop Smoke’s story is truly a tragedy. Young black man achieves rap fame and he is respected by men and loved by the women of all kinds. What more could a twenty-year-old kid from Brooklyn want? Less than two years ago Pop Smoke released Welcome to The Party. This song blew up, so much so, Nicki Minaj jumped on the remix. Also not bad.
2019 summer in New York, all you were hearing was Pop Smoke. He was getting recognition from his distinct voice. Pop Smoke was bringing New York a new sound. He wasn’t an artist that just had one hit record, as we would soon see.
By the end of the year, Pop Smoke was collaborating with Travis Scott, one of the most successful artists of the past 5 years. Then there was Christopher Walken, a single from Meet The Woo 2 that caught my attention and made me tap in. Meet The Woo 2was released on February 7, 2020. It was a great project that was setting Pop Smoke up to make some noise in the industry. The potential for him at that point was extremely high. Two weeks later he was murdered.
It’s still strange to me, the whole thing. It’s very sad. Pop Smoke was a young man ready to inspire the next generation of creative kids. He was going to be New York’s next big artist he was an original and we all got shorted.
Later, that year we get Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon. The album cover was selected by Pop Smoke fans all over the place. The music was put together by 50 Cent, who was a big inspiration for Pop Smoke. When I look back at 2020 the respect we showed for that album was something to be proud of. I loved the way we celebrated his album the way it should’ve been. LONG LIVE POP
