Pop Smoke Makes History with Top Spot on Billboard Charts

The late Panamanian-Jamaican rapper Pop Smoke is continuing to make history with his posthumous Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon album. His album is the longest running #1 Hip Hop/R&B album in the last 30 years. Can you believe it? Congratulations from down here, Pop!

Pop’s album has hit a milestone unseen on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop album charts, leading on the title for the 20th week and the #1 Top Rap Album going into its 19th week. Since 1990, not one artist has taken M.C. Hammer’s Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt Em top spot. The project was released last July, five months after the rapper died in February 2020, during a home invasion. Many fans and celebrities mourned his death.

“You’re going to see that we really just lost something big,” said 50 Cent.

Pop Smoke, whose real name was Bashar Barakah, was only 20-years-old when his life was cut short of what would have been a legendary artistic career. The New York native put forward a strong energy with his distinctive voice, captivating fans around the world. Smoke began his career in 2018 when he collaborated with UK drill rappers and producers and was the first to revolutionize the ‘drill’ scene in New York, starting with his song “Dior.”

Many fans and artists expressed their love on Twitter for Pop Smoke putting Brooklyn’s wave on a new game and forever influencing generations to come.

“[Pop Smoke’s death] hit London hard. It’s the first time we’ve embraced someone and they’ve embraced us the same – not for no clout, it was real,” UK rapper Skepta said.

Pop Smoke’s legacy continues despite the senseless tragedy of his death; his album Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon has had a Grammy nomination, three platinum, and five multi-platinum songs that have also reached the top 10 of the Hip Hop/R&B Airplay chart. The singles include “Dior,” “The Woo,” featuring 50 Cent and Roddy Ricch, “For the Night,” featuring Lil Baby and DaBaby and “What You Know Bout Love.”

If you’d like to dig deeper into Pop Smoke’s body of work, check out his Meet the Who and Meet the Who 2 mixtapes. Luckily, the rapper starred in his first and only film, Boogie, directed by Eddie Haung, which was released March 5 alongside an official soundtrack by the one and only Pop Smoke, featuring previously-unreleased songs, “AP” and “No Cap (Remix).”

Photographs provided by Griffin Lotz/Rolling Stone/Shutterstock/Focus Features