Pop Smoke Is the Second Rapper This Year to Rule the Charts After His Death
For the second time this year, the most popular musician in the world is a rapper who died before he got the chance to see his album released.
Pop Smoke sold the second-most albums of any artist in the U.S. this past month, and was the No. 2 act on Spotify. That was enough to put him atop Bloomberg’s Pop Star Power Rankings for the first time.
A New York-bred lyricist whose real name was Bashar Jackson, Pop Smoke was killed in February during a home invasion. Five people have been charged in connection with his death. Pop Smoke was killed before the release of his debut studio album, “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon,” which he had been working on the day of his death.
Juice WRLD, who died late last year from a drug overdose, topped the charts just two months ago thanks to the popularity of his new album “Legends Never Die.”
See other Pop Star Power Rankings
The groundswell of support for these rappers is a sad reminder of lives taken too soon—and the many years of fame and fortune that awaited them had they not perished.
It’s also a reminder of the many ways in which the pandemic has altered the course of the music business. Thousands of musicians are stuck at home unable to tour for safety reasons. That has deterred some artists from releasing their music, opting instead to sit on new works until they can tour to promote them.
Pop Smoke emerged from the drill scene, a style of rap first developed in Chicago, later mixed with the U.K. grime sound and then nurtured in New York, the birthplace of rap. The aggression, bass and bravado of drill has parallels to gangster rap, the defining hip-hop style of the early 1990s.
Rapper-turned-mogul 50 Cent saw some of himself in Pop Smoke, another kid raised on the streets of New York with dreams of taking over the world. 50 Cent was an executive producer on Pop Smoke’s latest album.
Pop Smoke signed just last year with Steven Victor, and the plan was to release a series of mix tapes until Pop Smoke was the undisputed king of drill—at which point they would release an album that showcased his more melodic side and included music from all over the world.
Instead, his first and final album was released in July, when it debuted at No. 1. All 19 of its tracks reached Billboard’s Hot 100 songs chart. As with so many hit rap albums these days, fans were listening to every song instead of just the singles.
“Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” has been one of the 10 most popular albums for three months now, holding strong as albums from Katy Perry, Lil Wayne, Luke Bryan, Nas came and went.