It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog, but while I’ve been gone some pretty significant things have happened in the music world. Kanye’s been doing Kanye things, Drake’s back to his best with a little help from DJ Khaled of all people, and we saw two posthumous albums drop in two weeks. Juice WRLD’s ‘Legends Never Die’ got the biggest first week of any 2020 album, but it is Pop Smoke’s 50 Cent produced debut album ‘Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon’ that has knocked me for six. Five months on from his untimely death at just 20 years old, the world finally got to hear what a full length commercial album from him would sound like and my god is it good.
Coming into the album I didn’t know too much about Pop Smoke apart from the occasional track, most notably ‘Dior’ which should go down in history as one of this generations greatest songs. His appearance on the JACKBOYS record also peaked my interest, with ‘GATTI’ essentially being the Pop Smoke gateway drug that eventually led to my addiction to this posthumous album. You only have to listen to one of his songs once to understand the appeal – his voice. Sounding like an American Abra Cadabra (if you know you know), his menacingly confident voice is enough to takeover any beat it appears on and you just get the feeling Pop Smoke was really about it. It’s no wonder he idolised 50 Cent when growing up, he’s essentially the second coming of him.
First of all, let’s give props to 50 Cent for doing such a great job with this album. When a young artist blows up and then passes away, it really can go one of two ways. It could go the XXXTentacion route whereby the label ruthlessly exploits any and every single studio recording to milk the brand while they’re still relevant, ultimately tarnishing the artist’s legacy and quality of their discography. OR it could go the Pop Smoke way, where the people in charge of handling the posthumous project truly nourish and care for it, creating a body of quality music for the fans to enjoy and the family to be proud of. 50 got involved because he knew how much he meant to Pop Smoke, especially as in interviews he has recalled the first time meeting the young star and how Pop Smoke was taking notes on everything 50 was saying to him. It was Pop Smoke’s dream to take his mum to an awards show, and 50 might have just given him the chance to do just that.
So listening to this project is a totally different experience to anything I’ve heard in a very long time. Pop Smoke had the potential to go to the very top of not just hip hop, but music as a whole. At just twenty years old it’s almost impossible to fully realise yourself as an artist, but listening to this album you know exactly who Pop Smoke is, and most importantly, you get the feeling that Pop Smoke knows who Pop Smoke is. His sound is so consistent, whether it be hard-hitting bangers like ‘Make it Rain’ or the more relaxed and sexual ‘Mood Swings’, every song is undeniably his. There are times when his flow and delivery appear to mimic something straight off 50 Cent’s ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album but that’s more of an intentional ode to his idol, something 50 would have undoubtedly picked up on and left in on purpose. Not to fuel his own ego, but more to pay respect to someone who was inspired by him. After all, imitation is the best form of flattery.
I’ve watched several album reactions to this project and one thing that keeps coming up is not only that Pop Smoke knows himself, but that he knows his audience too. He knows how to create the tough, gritty bangers that get the boys hyped, evident in tracks ‘Aim for the Moon’, ’44 Bulldog’, and ‘West Coast Shit’. However, he’s also got a track or two for the ladies and it doesn’t take too much thinking to work out what ‘Mood Swings’ was made for. Pop Smoke was definitely a top shagger. Fair play to him. He just has that perfect balance of everything and lands right in the sweet spot of satisfying everyone who listens to his music (apart from all those boomers who are scared of hoodies and hate ball games).
But Pop Smokes stays true to the streets on this record, taking several shots at poor old 6ix9ine in several not-so-sneaky sneak disses. There’s literally one track called ‘Snitching’ which is so on the nose it’s literally covered in blackheads and rainbow-coloured bogeys. Then there’s the line that blew up on release day which reads “I don’t wan’t none of that extra loud shit, this ain’t none of that rainbow hair shit” which not only makes 6ix9ine look like a spoilt child, but simultaneously insinuates Pop Smoke’s attitude to beef. If there’s a problem, he’s not handling it over instagram stories, he’s keeping it quiet and away from the media. You can’t knock the guy for that, just further proof he knows who he is, really.
For me though, this album is bitter sweet because I absolutely love it. It’s got pretty much no skips and is all killer no filler, and at just twenty years old, there’s no telling how much more Pop Smoke had to offer music before that opportunity was taken from him. The album ends with the track ‘Got it on me’, Pop Smoke’s remix of 50 Cent’s ‘Many Men’. The fact that this is even here at all is testament to how great Pop Smoke was and how much 50 really believed in him. It’s not just anyone who gets to rework one of the best hip hop songs of all time, especially when it’s given the green light and assisted by the man who made it, but here we are and ‘Got it on me’ is pretty much perfect and, dare I say it, better? The album should have ended there really. Yes, the outro is good, but ending with ‘Got it on me’ is actually a perfect way to end an album. It’s just one of those tracks you want everyone to hear and everyone to love, and it annoys you that it hasn’t got more streams than it has because its probably the best song you’ve heard all year and now you’re writing really long sentences about it trying to explain just how good it is but you still can’t do it justice because it’s just THAT GOOD. Yeah, listen to it.
Also, on a sidenote, please appreciate how throughout this whole post I have not once referred to him as ‘Pop’. Because, as we all know, you cannot say ‘Pop’ and forget the ‘Smoke’.
The Turntable 