(Photo: Arik McArthur/Getty Images)
Pop Smoke’s label Victor Victor Worldwide recently dropped the late rapper’s second album since his untimely death in February 2020. “Faith” features big names, including Kanye West, Future, Pharrell, Swae Lee, and Quavo and Takeoff of Migos.
The Brooklyn drill rapper’s life was cut short during a robbery at his Hollywood Hills home. His first posthumous album “Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon” was released a few months later in July, and is breaking records a year later.
According to MRC (formerly known as Nielsen Music) data, SFTSAFTM is currently the biggest rap album and the fourth most consumed album of 2021, after projects by Justin Bieber, Olivia Rodrigo and Morgan Wallen.
While his works have become notably the most popular, Pop Smoke is among Mac Miller, Juice WRLD, XXXtentacion, and more in a growing group of artists with music dropping posthumously.
Smoke, whose real name was Bashar Barakah Jackson, called attention to New York rap in life and death, at a time when Atlanta was dominating hip-hop. “People in the city knew him and were looking for him to be the next star,” said Shivam Pandya, vice president of operations for Victor Victor Worldwide.
He is undoubtedly living up to the hope of fans just before he would’ve turned 22 this month with a new project out and the longest charting album on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart since 1990.
“Faith” is now streaming on all platforms.