Pop Smoke’s Story Will Make You Fall In Love All Over Again
By Anna M Erickson
When asked what most people don’t know about him, Pop Smoke told XXL Magazine, “I’m a gentleman… I’m a double G homie: a gangsta and a gentleman.” On the Angie Martinez Show, he noted that his aggressive adlibs, growls, and barks are often misconstrued as him being an outwardly violent person, but no—“I’m a gentleman,” he says again.
Between the lines, this exposes one perceived truth: being gangsta equates to generating unnecessary violence. This misconception is the reason why Pop Smoke attended nine different schools as a kid, being told “this isn’t the right fit for you” when other kids got nervous around him. This same reason would cause Pop Smoke—alongside Casanova, 22GZ, and Sheff G—to be barred from performing at NYC's Rolling Loud Music Festival, due to the NYPD saying these men may invite more violence to the festival.
But, in Pop Smoke’s case, it couldn’t be more opposite. The truth of the matter is: you simply cannot have three full-fledged careers by the age of 20 by playing gangsta—looking for trouble, fronting for the media, or being outwardly aggressive for no reason—you’ve got to be the real deal. That was Pop Smoke.
Born in Canarsie, Brooklyn, to a Jamaican mother and Panamanian father, Bashar Barakah Jackson was nicknamed Poppa by his grandmother. He told XXL Magazine, growing up with sisters taught him to be a gentleman, saying “they put me on like, ‘No Pop, you have to talk nice.’ So instead of saying, 'What's up! What's good?!' I say, 'What's the matter? What's going on? Are you okay?'”
Pop Smoke grew up quickly. At 13, he went viral for the first time: in a video posted on World Star, Pop Smoke is seen being slapped on a Brooklyn street. The reason for this is unclear, but when speaking of the incident, he told The New York Times, “I’m glad it happened as a kid, I realized it’s time to boss up—life ain’t sweet.”
Fueled by the incident, by 8th grade Pop Smoke became a hustler which birthed the Woo movement. Woo was described as a way of life—a hustle. This would soon propel Pop Smoke to succeed in his three careers: playing ball, selling drugs, and rapping.
At 15, Pop Smoke made it out of the hood. After landing a scholarship at Rocktop Academy, he moved to the Philadelphia suburbs. This prep school aimed to get their athletes recruited for college basketball; this meant scouts, SAT/ACT prep, cross-state tournaments, and more. He was set. But after learning of a heart murmur, Pop Smoke became ineligible to play, soon returning home.
Next, came selling drugs. While trapping he excelled as well: by 16 he had his own BMW 5 Series. How exactly? He explained to the New York Times when “you like nice things, you got to do things to get nice things.” The high-risk high-reward lifestyle worked, and he was good at it. However, this came to a halt when he was given a weapon charge, leaving Pop Smoke in an ankle bracelet and on house arrest for two years—only being able to leave for school and work.
Now—let’s pause for a second—to truly understand what was happening to the soon-to-be star at 16; not only had he made it out of the hood; he had also made it in the hood. Yet, despite both plans to make it being barricaded, he never allowed this to fragment the vision he had for his own life.
This takes being an incredibly dynamic and resilient individual. When studying what those close to Pop Smoke reminisce about him, his resilience is nearly always mentioned. His rumored girlfriend wrote on her Instagram, @yummy_yellow_, “Nothing could bend or break him. He made sense out of everything and if he didn’t understand, he would ask questions, lots of em.” The CEO of his record label echoed this sentiment, writing “you believed in us so much it was contagious.”
So, it only makes sense that at 18, after graduating high school—still in an ankle bracelet—Pop Smoke’s vision would continue, untarnished, as it came time for his third career.
Enter, weed: magic on Earth and what we have to thank for Pop Smoke (well, partly). In early 2018, Pop Smoke was in the studio chilling and smoking with some friends who were into rapping. However—after getting a little too high—his friends fell asleep, Pop Smoke told Power 106. That’s when Pop Smoke decided to jump in and make a song.
After downloading a beat from YouTube, Pop Smoke made his first song “MPR” (Money Power Respect). This would then be uploaded to SoundCloud under the stage name Pop Smoke, fusing his street name Smoke Oh Gaup and his childhood nickname Poppa.
After recording, he went outside and told everyone in the neighborhood to listen to the track. They all began doing the Woo dance, and that was the start of it all—just by accident, sort of. Shortly after, he made the music video and garnered 10,000 views in one day.
On January 28, 2018, Pop Smoke dropped “Flexing” with a music video, this time receiving 100,000 views in one day. During the rest of 2018, Pop Smoke would continue to build a larger following through dropping additional songs.
As New York began picking up on the Canarsie growler, so did Steven Victor, founder of record label Victor Victor Worldwide. During their first meeting, Pop Smoke brought in music samples including the now widely known track “Something Special” which displayed his singing abilities. On spot, Victor jumped to sign him.
His first line, “Oh, you ain't know I could sing?,” in the later released song “Mood Swings” would playfully reminisce about the revealing of this talent.
Together, Pop Smoke and Steven Victor, hatched a plan to release another EP, composed of the up-and-coming drill music sound. This would solidify Pop Smoke as the leader of the explosive sub-genre taking over New York City. After the world met the Woo, and his sound was established, they would release a debut album with more intimate and love songs.
In an interview Pop Smoke noted the sequence of his EPs and albums were made to be reflective of his personality, noting “I ain’t gonna show you no love when I meet you nigga, you know what I’m sayin’, it’s still grrrr. After you met me already, we got that relationship, now it’s like... let me show you a different side.”
As Pop Smoke began working on his EP, it came time for new friendships to form. A vital characteristic attributing to his young stardom was Pop Smoke’s ability to gracefully evolve when met with conflict. An example of this is found in his relationship with UK producer 808 Melo.
He noted in a DJDubl Interview, since the composition of his first song, he had routinely gone to 808 Melo’s YouTube channel to download beats to rap and sing over. However, after Pop Smoke began blowing up, 808 Melo started pressing the young artist for money as he was using his beats with no credit or compensation. In response, Pop Smoke offered to fly him out and so they could create projects together. This relationship alone stands as encouragement to begin chasing your dreams, in whatever way you know how—the logistics will follow.
After landing in the U.S., they immediately went to work in the studio. On April 23, 2019, 808 Melo produced “Welcome to the Party,” the song that would change Pop Smoke’s life. Quickly this became a NY National anthem, with the first artist to remix it being no other than Nicki Minaj.
On July 26, 2019, Pop Smoke’s debut mixtape Meet the Woo was released. Hit song “Dior” took Pop Smoke to another level, going platinum and coming in at 22 on the Hot 100 Charts. All tracks but one, “PTSD,” had been produced by 808 Melo.
Through the end of the year, he worked alongside Quavo, Travis Scott, and Skepta. Pop Smoke would also meet his childhood icon: 50 Cent, a person that would take on a bigger role in his life than even fathomable at the time. After his rapid rise to fame in 2019, Pop Smoke looked to slow things down while getting ready for his second mixtape to release: Meet the Woo 2.
2020 was a highly anticipated year for the young artist, namely due to the drop of his EP succeeded by a debut album.
In early 2020, Virgil Abloh, CEO of Off-White, invited Pop Smoke to attend Paris Fashion Week. Between sitting front row, at the Louis Vuitton and Off-White shows, Pop Smoke starred in the music video for “Shake the Room” shot by Virgil. For a young artist, this invitation spoke volumes as to the trajectory of Pop Smoke’s career.
On January 17, 2020, after arriving back from overseas, Pop Smoke was immediately arrested for allegedly transporting stolen property access state lines, in connection to a stolen Rolls-Royce. That same day, Pop Smoke was released on $250,000 bail.
Following this incident, 50 Cent and Steven Victor pulled Pop Smoke into an emergency meeting. The two mentors looked to warn Pop Smoke of the consequences that would arise with the continuation of this behavior—regardless of whether or not he was involved in the crime; which he says he was not. Victor detailed the meeting to the New York Times, eerily chilling to read now, knowing this was only two weeks before his death.
“He [50 Cent] was asking Pop leading questions. Pop is answering them. And he’s like, ‘Bro, you do not want to be doing that. All the guns, you got to stop that right now. I get it. It’s something that’s necessary because of the life you lead and the people that’s around you, but you—you—you can’t be doing that. Because they’re waiting for you to fuck up. And your friends are not really your friends. They’re waiting for you to fuck up, too.’ He was like, ‘You could either continue down that path and there’s a high chance that you’ll end up in jail or dead, or you can do this.’ Pop is like, ‘What’s this?’ He’s like, ‘What I got going on! I sold 30 million records. I’m rich. I’m doing movies. I can get anybody on the phone. I could do anything. And this could be you.’”
Pop Smoke, who looked up to 50 Cent, realized he could be himself and embrace himself as an actual rapper. Victor noted after this meeting “he completely did a 360.”
While watching Pop Smoke interact in interviews, his 360 is visible. He went from being more reserved in interactions, as seen here, to an extremely charismatic, evident in this February 7, 2020 interview.
On February 7, 2020, Meet the Woo 2 was released as Pop Smoke flew out to a Hollywood Hills rental home where he would finish his debut album. While staying in this home, on February 19, 2020, Pop Smoke was killed in a robbery and home invasion.
This death was met with heartbreak. Members of the music industry shared painful words, such as Nicki Minaj who wrote “The Bible tells us that jealousy is as cruel as the grave. Unbelievable. Rest In Peace, Pop.” These words were followed by that of Quavo, Steven Victor, 50 Cent, and countless more.
Shortly after, 50 Cent gave Steven Victor a call. In a Rap Life Interview, Steven Victor detailed their conversation.
“50 was like ‘what are you doing with the album?’ And I was just like, ‘nothing... I’m not going to put an album out’ like I was just not in the right frame of mind emotionally… and he was like ‘I get what your feelings are… [but] you can’t be selfish… you can’t be depressed and stop the legacy that he was building, number one... you have to do the opposite. You have to go towards it. And then on top of that, how do you expect everyone around him—in terms of his family—to benefit off of all the work he put in? It will almost be like everything happened in vain if you don’t put the album out.’”
Then, 50 Cent offered to executive produce Pop Smoke’s album for free. Victor mentioned to Complex, before Pop Smoke passed, the majority of the album was complete; but, it was up to 50 Cent to finish the tracks and get other artists to feature on the album. This was a delicate task as Pop Smoke’s debut album was meant to display the more intimate side of himself, something previously reserved. In addition to carrying this responsibility, 50 Cent had to operate in full awareness that fans never got to see the most personal side of Pop Smoke until after his passing—and it was his job to introduce this.
With 50 Cent taking over the album, he reached out to Virgil, whom Pop Smoke originally wanted to design his album cover and packaging. But when the artwork was met with outrage, by both fans and 50 Cent, Pop Smoke’s mom ended up choosing the artwork known to fans today.
On July 3, 2020, Pop Smoke’s debut album was released and came in at number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
50 Cent’s take over of Pop Smoke’s album is easily one of the most telling actions of Pop Smoke’s impact and heartbreaking parts of his story. 50 Cent released his debut single the same year Pop Smoke was born. And since, he has put gangsta music back on the charts after the loss of Tupac and Biggie while revolutionizing mixtape culture and becoming a household name.
During the same time frame, Pop Smoke lived his 20 years of life. In this instance—where Pop Smoke’s childhood icon also became the person who ultimately carried his vision and legacy forward—it's extremely devastating.
Today, Pop Smoke will always be remembered. The way fans and A-List artists alike gravitated towards his charming nature and irresistible sound makes it easy to say, this was just the beginning for the Canarsie native.
Steven Victor took to Instagram two days after Pop Smoke’s passing, writing: “I’ll never forget what you told me after that meeting two weeks ago, and we will make sure that foundation gets started.” This promise soon became actualized through the launch of Pop Smoke’s non-profit foundation, Shoot For The Stars.
That’s the reason why “the smoke will never clear.” Pop Smoke lives on through those on Earth committed to carrying out his dream; it’s the hearts he’s touched, the impact he’s made, and the inspiration he’s left. The lasting presence of the Woo will never die—it couldn’t.
Rest In Peace Pop Smoke.