Everything You Need To Know About Pop Smoke's Album
Before he was tragically murdered in a home invasion in February 2020, Pop Smoke pushed the envelope in the rap industry by popularizing New York drill, a regional subgenre of drill music (which originated in Chicago by rappers such as Chief Keef and Lil Bibby). Within a year of his career, the Brooklyn native took the world by storm with hits "Welcome To The Party" and "Dior." Additionally, the rapper snagged features from big name artists including Nicki Minaj, 50 Cent, and Quavo.
Even after his tragic death, Pop Smoke's career lives true to the name of his posthumous album, "Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon" — the rapper has since been nominated for a Grammy, as well as a recipient for a number of BET and Billboard Awards. In March, Billboard announced that Pop's posthumous album is the longest-running No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart since 1990, leading the chart for the 17th week. "Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon" also surpassed Eminem's "Recovery" album, which spent 16 weeks on the chart. As if that isn't already impressive enough, the "AP" crooner's album officially spent a full year in the top 20 of the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, per HipHopDX.
Fast forward to July, fans are anticipating the release of Pop's forthcoming project. Here's everything we know about the late rapper's second posthumous album.
This British artist is teasing a collaboration with Pop Smoke on his forthcoming album
Pop Smoke's first posthumous album, "Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon," set the bar for the rapper's future projects, including his forthcoming second studio album. His manager, Steven Victor, confirmed the name and release date of the album in a July 11 tweet: "Pop Smoke 'FAITH' July 16." Leading up to the release date of "Faith," snippets of the rapper's unreleased tracks and visuals have been shared through the form of QR codes that have been displayed on posters in Los Angeles and New York City (via Hypebeast).
Earlier in the month, the 'Outro' track from Pop's "Faith" album was released (via NME). The track features a voice recording of the rapper giving advice to fans. "That's why we try to tell the young n****s like, stay focused, you understand?" he says on the track. "You know what I'm saying, keep your mind straight on the prize. Don't let nothing get in between. Focus up. You know what I'm saying? You've got to be fully focused. You can't let s**t get in between you and your goal."
A week prior to the album rollout, British artist Dua Lipa teased a possible collaboration with the late rapper on his forthcoming album. She posted a video of Pop dancing to her song "One Kiss" to Instagram. "YOU CAN'T SAY POP WITHOUT SMOKE – 16 JULY," Lipa wrote in the caption of the video. While Lipa hasn't confirmed nor denied her involvement with the late rapper's album, it's looking pretty promising that a collaboration could be in the works. We'll just have to wait and see!