RIP Pop Smoke

RIP Pop Smoke

 

The year 2020 is not off to a good start for the music industry, specifically Hip-Hop. Earlier this year, Chicago Native, Juice WRLD (a.k.a. Jarred Higgins), tragically passed away shortly after he landed at Chicago Midway Airport. In recent news, up and coming rapper, Pop Smoke, was killed in a home invasion. “I heard the news in DubTV and I actually screamed,” said Kyla Hubbard, ‘20.

 

Officers responded after someone calling from the East Coast reported that several people had entered their friend’s home shortly before 5 a.m., said LAPD Capt. Steve Lurie. When officers arrived at the $2.5-million home in the 2000 block of Hercules Drive, they found the 20-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Bashar Barakah Jackson, with gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Officers detained several people inside the house, but they were later released. At least four suspects fled the scene, and authorities say they have not been found. “Pop Smoke was my favorite rapper right now, he really changed the rap scene at the moment, he made it his own,” claimed Colin Moron, ‘22.

 

Pop Smoke began his music career in 2018 while hanging around other recording artists during their studio sessions, initially remixing popular songs within the New York City drill music scene, before embarking on creating original music. In a Genius interview, he stated thathis artist name of Pop Smoke is a combination of Papa (a nickname given to him by his Panamanian grandmother) and Smoke Oh Guap (a nickname given to him by childhood friends). 

 

“He was underrated, and a new voice. It was hard to not like him,” Gus Johnson, ‘21. The trajectory he was on was almost unparalleled. Pop Smoke had skyrocketed to the top of the charts with hit songs like, “Welcome to the Party”, “Dior”, and “GATTI”. The legacy of Pop Smoke will continue as he joins the passed legends above. RIP Pop Smoke…