Bashar Baraka Jackson, known as Pop Smoke, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He was regarded by many to be the face of the Brooklyn doctrine. Born and raised in Canarsie, Brooklyn, Pop Smoke started his music career in 2018. He frequently cooperated with British performers and producers who used more minimalist and more aggressive tools than the US drillers. Chicago. Pop Smoke became famous for the announcement of the single “Welcome to the Party” in April 2019.
After achieving popularity, Pop Smoke signed a recording deal with Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records, and also released his debut mixtape, Meet the Woo (2019). The secondary single of the mixtape “Dior”, written by 808Melo, touched number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. His other mixtape, Meet the Woo 2 (2020), reached number seven on the Billboard 200. Two weeks after the release of the project, Pop Smoke was fatally harmed during a home invasion in Los Angeles. His debut studio album Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon was posthumously published in July 2020 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with all 19 tracks from the album mapping on the Billboard Hot 100.
Career
He started his music career in 2018 when they interacted with other recording artists such as Jay Gwuapo during studio sessions, first remixing popular songs on the New York rig music scene before beginning to produce original music. In an interview with Genius, he stated that his artistic name Pop Smoke is a mixture of Poppa (a nickname given to him by his Panamanian grandmother) and Smoke (part of a nickname delivered to him by teens friends).
On December 19, 2018, Pop Smoke issued their debut single MPR. This made him an uproar in the Brooklyn area. On January 28, 2019, he released “Flexing”, which got more than one hundred thousand views on YouTube in a day. Pop Smoke, meanwhile, befriended producer Rico Beats, who knew record executive Stephen Victor. All three arranged for interviews, and in April 2019, Pop Smoke announced that it had signed a contract with Victor Victor Worldwide, a subsidiary of Universal Music. On April 23, 2019, Pop Smoke released his breakout single “Welcome to the Party”, the lead single from his debut mixtape Meet the Woo (2019), which was created by 808Melo. The song was later remixed twice, one with Nicki Minaj and the other with Skepta, on August 16, 2019. The song was written for the use of UK Drill production, later to be found throughout his discography. This was due to frequent collaboration with the British drill manufacturer 808Melo. His other popular songs include “Mpr”, “Flexin ‘”, and “Dior”. Following the increase in popularity of “Welcome to the Party”, he collaborated with other famous artists on singles such as “War” featuring Lil Tjay and “100k on a Coupe” featuring Calboy. In December 2019, he cooperated on “Gatti” with Travis Scott, also naming JackBoys on the latter’s Cactus Jack Records. The song is the last track on a compilation album by Scott and his JackBoys label.
In February 2020, Pop Smoke published their second mixtape Meet the Woo 2 with features from Quavo, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Fivio Foreign, and Lil Tjay. Five days after the announcement, a deluxe edition was released with three new songs, each featuring visitor appearances, including Nav, Gunna, and PnB Rock. On April 16, 2020, it was stated that a documentary on the life of Pop Smoke was in development.
On May 14, 2020, Pop Smoke manager Stephen Victor published that Smoke’s debut studio album would be issued posthumously on June 12, 2020. American rapper 50 Cent praised the deceased rapper and expressed interest in completing an album with possible features from Roddy Ricch, Drake, and Chris Brown, and also promised to invite Pop’s mother Smoke to the awards ceremony. The album will be titled Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon. It was supposed to be published on June 12, 2020, but was removed out of respect for George Floyd’s protests. Instead, the single “Make It Rain” featuring American rapper Rowdy Rebel was released on the original release date of the album. The rebel’s verse was recorded through a call for payment as he was in custody at the time. It was released on July 3, 2020, and was a commercial success, peaking at number one in several countries, including the US Billboard 200, and the entire album also charted in the Billboard Hot 100, led by the singles “The Woo” and “For the Night. “. On July 20, 2020, Smoke’s 21st birthday, a deluxe edition of the album was released.
