8 AR THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2020Pop
Every so often, though far less frequently
than it used to, New York hip-hop mints an
ambassador, someone who’s faithful to the
grit of the city’s musical legacy while pos-
sessing the charisma to transcend it.
So it was with Pop Smoke, the Canarsie
growler who was the most impressive rap
newcomer of 2019. For the past couple of
years, Brooklyn has been fertile turf, grow-
ing a scene — drill — with a sound that’s
rowdy, muscular and sinister. In Pop
Smoke, born Bashar Jackson, it found its
most intuitive voice, someone who reveled
in bad-guy bluster while using it as a step
toward something much more ambitious.
In short order, he strung together a wild
run of breakout singles (“Welcome to the
Party,” “Dior,” “Gatti,” “Christopher Walk-
ing”) that accelerated him toward hip-hop’s
upper tier. The songs were menacing but
fleet, a crucial balance that satisfies both
ground-level fans and those peering in from
outside. The speed with which hip-hop su-
perstars like Travis Scott and Nicki Minaj
were gravitating toward him for collabora-
tions portended great things, suggesting
that the king of New York might someday
become the king of everywhere else, too.
Pop Smoke’s success was sudden, and
was far from guaranteed. Before late 2018,
he’d never recorded music at all. His up-
bringing had been rough, pockmarked by
frequent moving around, up-close experi-
ences with violence and a handful of
brushes with law enforcement. The police
remained interested in him as he began to
experience success in music, creating a set
of obstacles that would persist even as he
moved farther away from his old life.
Pop Smoke’s debut EP from last July,
“Meet the Woo” (Victor Victor Worldwide/
Republic), was one of the strongest New
York rap releases in recent memory. His
second EP, “Meet the Woo 2,” arrived in
early February, and debuted at No. 7 on the
Billboard album chart.
Less than two weeks later, on Feb. 19, he
was shot to death in a still unsolved Los An-
geles home invasion. He was 20 years old.
The months leading up to his death were
packed with promise and adventure, per-
sistence and trial. Interviews with friends,
colleagues and collaborators tell the story
of this vital period — the intoxication of rap-
id career ascent, the persistent barriers the
police put in his path, the exponentially
growing crowds, the exponentially more ex-
pensive clothing, a sit-down with 50 Cent, a
high-wire video shoot in Paris and the re-
cording sessions that would become the
foundation for his first full-length album,
“Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon,”
which will be released on July 3. These are
edited excerpts from those conversations.
October
After a blistering summer in which “Wel-
come to the Party” became ubiquitous, Pop
Smoke’s club performances were expanding
to larger venues. He filmed his first movie
role in Eddie Huang’s “Boogie.”
EDDIE HUANG(director and screenwriter,
“Boogie”)Pop shows up to the audition —
Palm Angels head to toe — and he’s just a
kid, but he has the voice of 50 Cent and Paul
Mooney. You can tell he’s weathered, he’s an
old soul. Within two takes, you could see the
swag just come out of nowhere. He explodes
on camera. I stopped the audition right
there. He can turn emotions on a dime. He
could be funny. He can be mean. A lot of ac-
tors just don’t have the depth of emotion
and experiences, but because of what Pop’s
gone through, he has a tremendous well to
draw from.
He gave me a thousand percent. They
were tough 16-hour days, overnights, and
he shot five overnights in a row. Kids were
coming on the bridge to watch us shoot the
scenes. We would play Pop’s record. All our
actors, the extras, the kids on the bridge
watching us shoot scenes, everyone was do-
ing the Woo dance. It was pretty special.
But Pop Smoke was beginning to run up
against resistance in his hometown: After
pressure from the New York Police Depart-
ment, he was dropped from the New York
edition of the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival.
TARIQ CHERIF(co-founder, Rolling Loud)He
was undeniably the hottest in the city, peri-
od. He had the actual support of the real
people in the city, real gangsters, real pos-
itive people, everything in between. We be-
lieve that if the law says you can be free,
then you should be able to perform.
STEVEN VICTOR(C.E.O. and founder, Victor
Victor Worldwide)He was disappointed. Af-
ter they said that he couldn’t perform, me
and Travis Scott were talking, and Travis
was going to sneak him in. Pop went to the
Louis Vuitton store, I went and picked him
up, and we were on our way to Queens.
SHIVAM PANDYA(general manager, Victor
Victor Worldwide)I left “Joker” in the mid-
dle of the movie to go figure it out on site. We
had snuck him into a couple of smaller
events over the summer. But this one, it was
so tense and it was so many people around.
There was just no way it was going to hap-
pen quietly. We were trying to figure out
what the workaround was, and, you know, itwas never explicit. They would always say,
“Well, it’s the people hanging out, we can’t
have 20 people backstage.” OK, well, what if
he just shows up with a D.J.? What if he just
comes out as a guest performer? It just was
frustrating.
CHERIFIt would have been freaking viral.
But with him not performing, I told my
D.J.s, run that Pop Smoke, play “Welcome
to the Party.” Every D.J., before their artists
went on, they played Pop Smoke.November and December
Pop Smoke’s renown was spreading. He
worked in the studio for the first time with
Migos and performed at Astroworld in
Houston and the Los Angeles edition of
Rolling Loud. He delivered a few radio free-
styles that gained traction on YouTube.VICTORHe had all the attributes — very,
very determined — but in the beginning, he
couldn’t see past New York City. He had a
show in Albany. Everyone knew all the
words. I sent him a video [from the show],
and he hit me back and he was like: “Yo, I
love you, man. You really changed my life. I
couldn’t even imagine this.”
QUAVO(rapper, member of Migos)He was
new, but I felt like I was talking to somebody
that had been in the game for three years
already. When I see somebody like that, I
feel like I need to share my information, you
know? So I told Steven: “Hey, I’m a big bro
him. I’m going to put him down on the dos
and don’ts.”
D.J. SOURMILK(L.A. Leakers, Los Angeles’s
Power 106)One of the first things he did was
take one of his chains off and give it to me.
He was like, “You part of the Woo now.”
JUSTIN CREDIBLE(L.A. Leakers, Los Ange-
les’s Power 106)You could tell that he was
[in the radio studio] on a mission. In his
freestyle, the combination of the texture of
his voice over that 50 beat [“U Not Like
Me”], you could tell that it was well thought
out. He knew what this moment was going
to do, even maybe more so than me and
Milk did in the moment.
PANDYAAt Astroworld, he was super excit-
ed to know that Travis had handpicked that
lineup. They ended up meeting for the first
time that afternoon. It was all these peoplethat he was fans of but hadn’t met, just to
see that love and energy for them to em-
brace him and welcome him as one of their
own. He’s playing Ping-Pong with Quavo,
he’s eating wings and Thug comes up to
him. He met Marilyn Manson and had no
idea who he was.
Pop Smoke’s music was heavily influenced
by U.K. drill; his main producers were all
British. After he finally secured a passport,
his first overseas trip was to England, the
home of the sound that carried him to fame.
What he found there was a rabid fan base
and kinship from the country’s stars, includ-
ing Skepta, who invited him out on the road.BENJAMIN LUST(A&R, Victor Victor World-
wide)You wouldn’t believe the hoops and
bounds we had to do to get a passport. After
we supplied everything, they asked for 10
more forms of identification to prove he is
who he is. We had to give his transcript from
high school, his contract with Universal
Music Group.
D.J. SEMTEX(host, London’s Capital XTRA)
I’m like, “Yo, I want to do the first show in
London.” Booking agent’s worried because
he’s new, he’s only got a couple of tracks. I
don’t care. I need to bring him to the U.K.
first, this guy is hard. I put the tickets on
sale at a 600-capacity venue, sells out
within 10 minutes; 1,000 capacity — sold out
again, straight away. It was a zoo.
SWIRV(producer)We knew how big his
songs were over here. Even U.K. drill artists
would play the songs on their Snapchat. I
just remember that everyone was on their
feet for the whole show, even the people up
in the stands with the seats. Everyone was
recording the whole time.
SKEPTA(rapper)Some of the shows he did
were a bit smaller, club shows. Then he
come to my shows and it was maybe 10,000
people. You know how the sound people do
this thing sometimes where they turn it
down for the opening act and turn it up for
the main act? I was going crazy on the
sound man because he didn’t turn the sound
up. Pop come off and said, “Yo that was
crazy” and I said, “Nah man, I’m pissed.”
He’s like, “Yo Skep, chill, bro, I’m cool. That
was lit to me.” He was just appreciative.
SEMTEXWhen I did my interview with him,Pop Smoke and His Last Days
A Brooklyn rapper’s whirlwind
life was cut short in February.
By JON CARAMANICARYAN LOWRY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESJOHNNY NUNEZ/GETTY IMAGESTop, the rapper
Pop Smoke. Above,
50 Cent, center,
and Pop Smoke,
right, at a Miami
party in February,
just weeks before
Pop Smoke’s death.