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Pop Smoke
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Pop Smoke was the stage name of Bashar Barakah Jackson, an American rapper and singer. He was born in 1999 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of a Jamaican mother and a Panamanian father. As a child he played African drums and sang in his neighbourhood church. His name is a combination of Poppa, as his Panamanian grandmother called him, and Smocco Guwop, a nickname from childhood friends. In 2018 he tried rapping for the first time, in a recording studio in Brooklyn.
Music and breakthrough
In 2019 he broke through with the singles Welcome to the Party and Dior. That year he signed a contract with Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records, and in July his first mixtape, Meet the Woo, appeared. His second, Meet the Woo 2, came out on 7 February 2020 and immediately entered the American top ten of the album chart. Twelve days later he was murdered during a robbery at his home in Los Angeles. He was twenty years old.
Influence
Again and again Pop Smoke collaborated with British drill artists and producers, who made a barer and more aggressive sound than the American drill of Chicago. In this way he brought that style back under the name Brooklyn drill. His deep, raw voice suits those hard beats. His first studio album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon (2020), came out after his death, with 50 Cent as executive producer. It topped the Billboard 200. In 2021 Faith followed. He shows how a sound from Chicago and London took on a new face in New York.
Listening
Dior · Pop Smoke, 2019Apple Music ↗