WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.299 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:02.299 --> 00:00:04.599 turning the lights down low and turning the bass 00:00:04.599 --> 00:00:07.139 up until the windows rattle. For sure. We're 00:00:07.139 --> 00:00:10.460 looking at a figure who, in a frighteningly short 00:00:10.460 --> 00:00:12.560 window of time, and we're talking really just 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:16.640 between 2018 and 2020. didn't just make music. 00:00:16.820 --> 00:00:20.160 No, not at all. He completely redefined the sound 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:22.500 of New York City. We are talking about Bashar 00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:24.719 Baraka Jackson, but you know him. The world will 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:28.179 always know him as Pop Smoke. Yeah, this is a 00:00:28.179 --> 00:00:30.420 heavy one today. It's heavy because of the tragedy. 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:32.960 Obviously, a rising star cut down at just 20 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:35.700 years old. Just 20. It's unbelievable. But it's 00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:38.259 also heavy because of the sheer weight of the 00:00:38.259 --> 00:00:40.759 cultural shift he instigated. You know, sometimes 00:00:40.759 --> 00:00:43.380 artists change the game over a decade. They like 00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:45.500 chip away at the statue until it looks different. 00:00:45.619 --> 00:00:48.079 Right. A slow evolution. Pop Smoke took a sledgehammer 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:50.579 to it in about 14 months. That timeline is what 00:00:50.579 --> 00:00:54.700 I want us to really obsess over today. 14 months. 00:00:54.939 --> 00:00:57.399 That is barely enough time to learn a new language, 00:00:57.479 --> 00:01:00.060 let alone create a whole new subgenre of music. 00:01:00.539 --> 00:01:03.039 And that's really the mission of this deep dive. 00:01:03.140 --> 00:01:05.120 We have to acknowledge the tragedy and we will 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:07.379 get into the details of that night in the Hollywood 00:01:07.379 --> 00:01:09.599 Hills, especially with some, you know, pretty 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:13.340 significant legal updates from 2025 that bring 00:01:13.340 --> 00:01:15.260 some closure. A lot of people might not even 00:01:15.260 --> 00:01:17.959 be aware of those updates. Right. But if we only 00:01:17.959 --> 00:01:20.959 look at this as a true crime story, we are missing 00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:23.799 the bigger picture. We need to look at the mechanics 00:01:23.799 --> 00:01:26.620 of this cultural phenomenon known as Brooklyn 00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:29.400 Drill. We want to understand how. How does a 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:32.000 kid from Canarsie go from playing drums in a 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.719 church to having 50 Cent executive produce his 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:37.799 album all in the blink of an eye? And to do that 00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:40.180 justice, we're pulling from a massive stack of 00:01:40.180 --> 00:01:42.299 sources today. We've got biographical records, 00:01:42.579 --> 00:01:45.260 discography notes, some very dense legal filings 00:01:45.260 --> 00:01:47.659 regarding his arrest and the murder trial itself. 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:50.200 And we also have the chart data, which details 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:53.140 a posthumous success that is, frankly, unprecedented 00:01:53.140 --> 00:01:55.640 in hip -hop history. It's just off the charts. 00:01:55.819 --> 00:01:57.420 So let's set the scene before we get into the 00:01:57.420 --> 00:01:59.840 biography. If you were in New York or really 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:02.140 anywhere with a subwoofer in the summer of 2019, 00:02:02.599 --> 00:02:05.000 you felt this. Oh, you couldn't escape it. It 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.280 wasn't just a sound. It was a physical vibration. 00:02:07.459 --> 00:02:11.599 It was that gravelly, voice -deep, smoke -filled, 00:02:11.659 --> 00:02:15.639 aggressive, and those sliding bass lines. And 00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:19.259 the woo ad -lib. Woo! It was atmospheric. You 00:02:19.259 --> 00:02:21.120 know, New York hip hop had been having a bit 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:23.300 of an identity crisis for a while. You had the 00:02:23.300 --> 00:02:27.080 classic 90s boom bap era, Nas, Biggie, Wu -Tang, 00:02:27.379 --> 00:02:29.840 unforgettable stuff. The golden age, for sure. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:32.560 Then you had the glossy, club -ready 50 Cent 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:37.240 era in the 2000s. By the late 2010s, the center 00:02:37.240 --> 00:02:39.620 of gravity had shifted south. It was all Atlanta 00:02:39.620 --> 00:02:43.020 trap. All Atlanta trap or Chicago drill. New 00:02:43.020 --> 00:02:45.340 York was almost, you know, importing culture 00:02:45.340 --> 00:02:47.400 rather than exporting it for the first time in 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.180 a long time. Pop Smoke grabbed that energy by 00:02:50.180 --> 00:02:51.879 the throat and dragged it back to Brooklyn. But 00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:53.699 the fascinating thing is he didn't do it with 00:02:53.699 --> 00:02:56.039 a traditional New York sound. That's the twist. 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:57.659 That's the whole story right there. Right. And 00:02:57.659 --> 00:02:59.460 we're going to unpack that weird geographical 00:02:59.460 --> 00:03:01.979 hopscotch in a bit, how London played this huge 00:03:01.979 --> 00:03:04.159 role in a Brooklyn story. But let's rewind. Let's 00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:06.879 go. back to Canarsie. Because to understand the 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:08.960 woo, you have to understand where Bashar Jackson 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:12.300 came from. Absolutely. So Bashar Baraka Jackson 00:03:12.300 --> 00:03:16.580 was born on July 20, 1999. He's a summer baby 00:03:16.580 --> 00:03:18.919 born right at the turn of the millennium. Wow. 00:03:19.259 --> 00:03:22.139 And his background is the quintessential New 00:03:22.139 --> 00:03:24.780 York melting pot story. He was born in Brooklyn 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:28.439 to a Jamaican mother, Audrey Jackson, and a Panamanian 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:31.159 father, Greg Jackson. That Caribbean influence 00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:33.699 is just massive in Brooklyn. It's not just background 00:03:33.699 --> 00:03:36.439 noise. It's the food, the slang, the rhythm of 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:39.259 speech. You can almost hear that patois cadence 00:03:39.259 --> 00:03:42.000 in his rapping later on. You really can. It's 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:44.639 in the DNA of his flow. But I love this detail 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:46.680 about his name. We always wonder where these 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:48.800 stage names come from. Pop Smoke sounds like 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:50.919 it was cooked up in a marketing boardroom. Yeah, 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:53.500 like it was focus group. Exactly. But it's actually 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:55.639 really organic. It is. It's a collision of two 00:03:55.639 --> 00:03:57.400 different worlds, which is a theme you see a 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:00.000 lot in his life. His Panamanian grandmother used 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.080 to call him Papa. Okay, so that's the family 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:03.759 side. That's the family side. It's the soft side. 00:04:03.879 --> 00:04:05.939 And then as he got into the streets and hung 00:04:05.939 --> 00:04:08.060 out with his childhood friends, they gave him 00:04:08.060 --> 00:04:11.819 the nickname Smucko Guap. Smucko Guap. So you 00:04:11.819 --> 00:04:14.280 take the Papa from Grandma. And the smoke from 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:17.220 smocko. And you get pop smoke. It's a perfect 00:04:17.220 --> 00:04:19.540 blend of the home and the corner. That's incredible. 00:04:19.740 --> 00:04:22.300 And speaking of the corner versus the home, his 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:24.839 childhood wasn't a straight line. The source 00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:27.360 material says he attended nine different schools 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:30.699 while growing up in Canarsie. Nine. That is a 00:04:30.699 --> 00:04:33.579 chaotic amount of moving around for a kid. It's 00:04:33.579 --> 00:04:37.540 instability, plain and simple. And you see this 00:04:37.540 --> 00:04:40.480 duality in his early life that is really striking. 00:04:41.019 --> 00:04:42.800 On one hand, you have this image of him as a 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:44.959 child playing African drums in his local church. 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.519 I love that detail. It tells you rhythm was in 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:49.920 him from the beginning. It's a very grounded, 00:04:50.060 --> 00:04:53.500 spiritual, community -based upbringing. It teaches 00:04:53.500 --> 00:04:55.199 you rhythm. It teaches you how to perform in 00:04:55.199 --> 00:04:57.379 front of people. But on the other hand, by the 00:04:57.379 --> 00:04:59.120 time he's in eighth grade, he's being expelled. 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:01.759 For what? For bringing a gun to school. Eighth 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:04.060 grade? That's what, 13 or 14 years old? Exactly. 00:05:04.980 --> 00:05:06.959 Extremely young to be carrying that kind of hardware. 00:05:07.220 --> 00:05:09.540 And that led to two years of house arrest on 00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:11.600 a weapons charge. Two years. So you have a kid 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:15.399 who is clearly talented, clearly has rhythm, 00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:17.800 remember the drums, but who is already getting 00:05:17.800 --> 00:05:20.879 pulled into a very dangerous orbit. Here's the 00:05:20.879 --> 00:05:23.959 big what if moment of the story. I think a lot 00:05:23.959 --> 00:05:25.680 of people assume that because he was so good 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:27.879 at rapping, he always wanted to be a rapper. 00:05:27.980 --> 00:05:29.959 Right, that it was the master plan. But music 00:05:29.959 --> 00:05:32.699 wasn't actually plan A, was it? No, not at all. 00:05:32.759 --> 00:05:36.220 Plan A was the hoop dream. And he wasn't just 00:05:36.220 --> 00:05:38.800 playing pickup at the park. He was good. He was 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:41.259 a point and shooting guard. Seriously good. Serious 00:05:41.259 --> 00:05:43.720 enough that he actually moved out of New York 00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:47.500 to Philadelphia to attend Rock Top Academy. Rock 00:05:47.500 --> 00:05:50.500 Top is a prep school specifically known for basketball. 00:05:50.860 --> 00:05:53.540 It's a pipeline. So he's trying to get out. He's 00:05:53.540 --> 00:05:55.199 trying to get away from the trouble in Canarsie, 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:57.779 trying to focus entirely on the sport. He saw 00:05:57.779 --> 00:06:01.079 a path. So imagine a timeline where Pop Smoke 00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:03.500 is a starting point guard for the Sixers or the 00:06:03.500 --> 00:06:06.300 Knicks. We're watching him on ESPN instead of 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:08.879 listening to Dior. It's a whole different world. 00:06:09.100 --> 00:06:11.939 What happened? Why did he leave Rocktop? It was 00:06:11.939 --> 00:06:14.600 a medical diagnosis. He was diagnosed with a 00:06:14.600 --> 00:06:18.149 heart murmur. Wow. Just like that. Just like 00:06:18.149 --> 00:06:20.649 that, the basketball path was closed off. He 00:06:20.649 --> 00:06:23.050 was forced to leave the academy. And I think 00:06:23.050 --> 00:06:24.949 if we want to understand the psychology here, 00:06:25.110 --> 00:06:28.250 we have to look at that moment deeply. It's devastating. 00:06:28.610 --> 00:06:30.750 You're a teenager, you have a dream, you have 00:06:30.750 --> 00:06:33.670 literal way out of a dangerous environment, and 00:06:33.670 --> 00:06:35.810 then your own body betrays you. It creates a 00:06:35.810 --> 00:06:38.329 vacuum. You have all this drive, all this aggression 00:06:38.329 --> 00:06:40.470 and energy that you were channeling into sports, 00:06:40.689 --> 00:06:44.149 and suddenly there's nowhere for it to go. And 00:06:44.149 --> 00:06:47.009 where does it go? The streets were what was left. 00:06:47.399 --> 00:06:50.240 He eventually turned back to street life. And 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:52.660 the sources suggest this was a pivot point where 00:06:52.660 --> 00:06:55.079 the energy he was putting into sport needed a 00:06:55.079 --> 00:06:57.399 new outlet. But, and this is the surprising part 00:06:57.399 --> 00:07:00.300 for anyone studying his discography, the music 00:07:00.300 --> 00:07:02.519 didn't happen immediately. He wasn't one of those 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:05.000 kids rapping since he was five. No, this is the 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:07.709 part that blows my mind. He didn't start rapping 00:07:07.709 --> 00:07:11.050 seriously until 2018. 2018? That's barely two 00:07:11.050 --> 00:07:14.170 years before he died. It's incredibly rare. Usually 00:07:14.170 --> 00:07:16.670 you see years of bad mixtapes, years of finding 00:07:16.670 --> 00:07:19.290 a voice on SoundCloud. Pop Smoke seemed to arrive 00:07:19.290 --> 00:07:22.670 fully formed. So what was the spark? What happened 00:07:22.670 --> 00:07:25.129 in 2018? The story goes that he was visiting 00:07:25.129 --> 00:07:28.110 a Brooklyn recording studio with a friend, another 00:07:28.110 --> 00:07:31.649 rapper, named Jay Guapo. Okay. Pop wasn't even 00:07:31.649 --> 00:07:33.189 there to record, really. He was just hanging 00:07:33.189 --> 00:07:36.889 out. but jay guapo got too high and fell asleep 00:07:36.889 --> 00:07:40.329 no way and pop smoke probably bored and curious 00:07:40.329 --> 00:07:43.589 decided to jump in the booth that is such a legendary 00:07:43.589 --> 00:07:46.189 origin story you fell asleep so i took the mic 00:07:46.740 --> 00:07:48.800 It's like something out of a movie. But this 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:51.120 is where we get to the birth of the sound. Yeah. 00:07:51.180 --> 00:07:53.560 Because he didn't just rap over a Jay -Z beat 00:07:53.560 --> 00:07:56.220 or a generic Atlanta trap beat. He picked something 00:07:56.220 --> 00:07:59.500 very specific from YouTube. Right. And this is 00:07:59.500 --> 00:08:01.959 the choice that changes everything. He rapped 00:08:01.959 --> 00:08:04.319 over a beat he found on YouTube produced by a 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:06.740 guy named 808 Mellow. 808 Mellow. And this is 00:08:06.740 --> 00:08:09.019 the technical shift. 808 Mellow isn't from Brooklyn 00:08:09.019 --> 00:08:11.399 or Atlanta. He's a UK producer. From London. 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:14.839 At this time, the UK drill scene artists like 00:08:14.839 --> 00:08:17.620 Skepta, groups like 67, they were making this 00:08:17.620 --> 00:08:21.040 very specific type of dark, minimal music. OK, 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:23.120 I want to pause and unpack drill for the listener 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:25.060 who might hear the term but not know the mechanics. 00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:28.360 We know drill started in Chicago, right? Chief 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:32.750 Keef. Lil Durk, that whole 2011, 2012 era. That's 00:08:32.750 --> 00:08:35.149 the first wave. Chicago drill was very aggressive, 00:08:35.289 --> 00:08:38.409 very violent. Lyrically, drill is slang for shooting, 00:08:38.509 --> 00:08:41.070 but musically it was often chaotic. It had high 00:08:41.070 --> 00:08:44.129 tempo, rattling high hats, very trap influenced. 00:08:44.429 --> 00:08:46.250 Okay, so that's the Chicago sound. What happened 00:08:46.250 --> 00:08:48.490 when it crossed the ocean? When that sound migrated 00:08:48.490 --> 00:08:51.450 to the UK, the British producers changed it. 00:08:51.490 --> 00:08:53.409 They scripted it down, they made it ghostlier, 00:08:53.429 --> 00:08:56.370 they almost made it more... What specifically 00:08:56.370 --> 00:08:58.389 did they change in the production? What should 00:08:58.389 --> 00:09:00.610 you be listening for? The key difference is the 00:09:00.610 --> 00:09:04.049 bass. In UK Drill, they use these sliding, wobbling 00:09:04.049 --> 00:09:07.470 888 bass lines that sound like a distorted sine 00:09:07.470 --> 00:09:10.289 wave. If you listen closely to a Pop Smoke track, 00:09:10.490 --> 00:09:12.830 listen to how the bass doesn't just hit on one 00:09:12.830 --> 00:09:15.090 note. It moves. It moves. It slides up and down 00:09:15.090 --> 00:09:17.990 in pitch. It creates this woozy, unsettling feeling. 00:09:18.110 --> 00:09:20.970 And they made the hi -hat patterns more jittery, 00:09:20.970 --> 00:09:23.110 more syncopated, less straightforward than trap. 00:09:23.230 --> 00:09:25.789 It became moodier, almost like horror movie music. 00:09:25.909 --> 00:09:27.990 And Pop Smoke, sitting in a studio in Brooklyn, 00:09:28.190 --> 00:09:31.830 hears this UK sound and realizes, what? This 00:09:31.830 --> 00:09:35.279 fits my voice. This is me. Exactly. American 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:37.620 drill artists weren't really using those UK beats 00:09:37.620 --> 00:09:40.539 yet. It was seen as a London thing. Pop Smoke 00:09:40.539 --> 00:09:43.720 took that UK production style, specifically Ado 00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:46.179 Hay Mello's beats, and put his Brooklyn flow 00:09:46.179 --> 00:09:48.299 on top of it. But his flow was totally different 00:09:48.299 --> 00:09:50.080 from the British guy's. Completely different. 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:52.519 The British rappers are often fast and skittery. 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:55.639 His was deep, gravelly, and had that Caribbean 00:09:55.639 --> 00:09:59.100 -inflected swagger. That fusion UK beats plus 00:09:59.100 --> 00:10:01.659 Brooklyn voice, that is what we now call Brooklyn 00:10:01.659 --> 00:10:04.370 drill. He created a hybrid genre. He created 00:10:04.370 --> 00:10:06.629 it in that moment. It's like he was the missing 00:10:06.629 --> 00:10:08.470 instrument that those beats were waiting for. 00:10:08.590 --> 00:10:12.110 The track he recorded that day became NPR Panic 00:10:12.110 --> 00:10:14.490 Part 3 Remix. And it started to bubble. It did. 00:10:14.629 --> 00:10:17.710 Not long after, in January 2019, he drops Flexin. 00:10:17.730 --> 00:10:20.990 But then comes April 2019, the song that changed 00:10:20.990 --> 00:10:23.730 the atmosphere, Welcome to the Party. Oh man, 00:10:23.929 --> 00:10:26.389 that song. Welcome to the Party was a seismic 00:10:26.389 --> 00:10:28.860 event. Produced by 808 Mellow, of course. Yeah. 00:10:28.980 --> 00:10:31.559 It's minimal, it's menacing, and it's incredibly 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:35.019 catchy. It's undeniable. Within days, maybe weeks, 00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:37.879 it stopped being just a local track in Canarsie. 00:10:37.879 --> 00:10:39.860 It started ringing out of cars in Manhattan, 00:10:40.100 --> 00:10:42.179 in the Bronx. You couldn't walk down a street 00:10:42.179 --> 00:10:44.080 in New York that summer without hearing it. And 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:46.519 it bridged the gap back to the UK, right? Because 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:49.200 the UK scene immediately recognized their sound. 00:10:49.379 --> 00:10:52.299 They did. Skepta, who is... Basically, the king 00:10:52.299 --> 00:10:55.980 of UK rap and grime jumped on a remix. That was 00:10:55.980 --> 00:10:59.059 a huge cosign. But then Nicki Minaj jumps on 00:10:59.059 --> 00:11:01.519 a remix. And that signals, OK, this is mainstream 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:03.779 American now. It's not just a niche drill thing 00:11:03.779 --> 00:11:06.480 anymore. Precisely. You had the king of UK rap 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:09.740 and the queen of US rap both anointing this kid 00:11:09.740 --> 00:11:11.940 who had been rapping for, what, six or seven 00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:14.320 months. It's the definition of a meteoric rise. 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:17.559 It validated the sound on both sides of the Atlantic 00:11:17.559 --> 00:11:20.740 instantly. And the industry noticed fast. We're 00:11:20.740 --> 00:11:22.919 not talking about a slow courting process where 00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:25.460 A &Rs are watching him for a year. No, they pounced. 00:11:25.740 --> 00:11:28.159 Rico Beats, a well -known producer who knew pop, 00:11:28.419 --> 00:11:31.379 introduced him to Stephen Victor. And Stephen 00:11:31.379 --> 00:11:33.019 Victor is a heavy hitter. He worked with Pusha 00:11:33.019 --> 00:11:36.179 T. He was an executive at Universal. A serious 00:11:36.179 --> 00:11:38.419 player. So the connection was made. And in April 00:11:38.419 --> 00:11:41.759 2019, the same month, Welcome to the Party drops 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:44.519 pop smoke signs to Victor, Victor Worldwide, 00:11:44.539 --> 00:11:46.659 and Republic Records. Let's just pause on that 00:11:46.659 --> 00:11:49.519 timeline. First time rapping in a booth in 2018. 00:11:50.250 --> 00:11:54.149 Major label deal by April 2019. That is lightning 00:11:54.149 --> 00:11:56.549 speed. It's unheard of. It usually takes artists 00:11:56.549 --> 00:11:58.490 years to get that kind of paperwork. So what 00:11:58.490 --> 00:12:01.029 was it? What did they see? It speaks to the charisma. 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:03.419 Stephen Victor has said in interviews that he 00:12:03.419 --> 00:12:05.240 saw it immediately. This wasn't just a rapper. 00:12:05.340 --> 00:12:08.500 This was a star. The look, the voice, the energy. 00:12:08.759 --> 00:12:10.919 Pop Smoke walked into a room and the temperature 00:12:10.919 --> 00:12:13.820 changed. You just can't manufacture that. So 00:12:13.820 --> 00:12:16.360 now we're in the summer of 2019. He releases 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:19.480 his debut mixtape, Meet the Woo. And this is 00:12:19.480 --> 00:12:21.240 where he really starts building the discography. 00:12:21.460 --> 00:12:23.740 It wasn't just a one -hit wonder situation. No, 00:12:23.740 --> 00:12:26.460 he proved he had staying power. Meet the Woo 00:12:26.460 --> 00:12:29.730 dropped in July. You had tracks like War with 00:12:29.730 --> 00:12:32.049 Lil TJ, which was interesting because it showed 00:12:32.049 --> 00:12:34.049 he could collaborate with more melodic rappers. 00:12:34.330 --> 00:12:36.009 Right. He wasn't just a one -trick pony. Not 00:12:36.009 --> 00:12:39.029 at all. You had 100K on a Coop with Cowboy. But 00:12:39.029 --> 00:12:41.830 then on that same tape, you had Dior. Dior. I 00:12:41.830 --> 00:12:43.350 mean, if Welcome to the Party was the introduction, 00:12:43.610 --> 00:12:45.730 Dior was the coronation. That's a perfect way 00:12:45.730 --> 00:12:48.750 to put it. Mike Amiri, Mike Amiri, Christian 00:12:48.750 --> 00:12:52.870 Dior, Dior. It became an anthem for everything. 00:12:53.149 --> 00:12:55.870 Why did that specific track resonate so hard? 00:12:56.409 --> 00:12:58.470 Well, Dior is interesting because it's a fashion 00:12:58.470 --> 00:13:01.580 flex. which is a staple of hip -hop, but it's 00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:03.860 done with such aggression and such a low -key 00:13:03.860 --> 00:13:07.019 menace. It made high fashion feel tough. And 00:13:07.019 --> 00:13:09.899 musically, it's just infectious. It's the 808 00:13:09.899 --> 00:13:12.120 Slides. It's that bass line. It was a slow burn 00:13:12.120 --> 00:13:13.799 that just never went out. It was on the first 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:15.940 mixtape, but it kept growing and growing. It 00:13:15.940 --> 00:13:18.299 actually became his first posthumous solo hit 00:13:18.299 --> 00:13:20.639 later on because people just kept playing it. 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:23.240 It had legs. It had serious legs. It resonated 00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:26.000 globally because it was aspirational but grounded 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:28.379 in that gritty sound. And by the end of 2019, 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:30.720 he's not just a Brooklyn phenomenon anymore. 00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:33.539 He is getting invited to the biggest tables in 00:13:33.539 --> 00:13:36.559 hip hop. He shows up on the Jack Boys compilation 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:39.200 album. That's the Travis Scott connection. Being 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:41.460 on the song Gaddy with Travis Scott is a massive 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:44.100 stamp of approval. Travis Scott is one of the 00:13:44.100 --> 00:13:46.059 biggest curators in the world. So that put him 00:13:46.059 --> 00:13:48.440 on a whole new stage. A global stage. That track 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:51.779 came out in December 2019. And it gave Pop Smoke 00:13:51.779 --> 00:13:55.019 his very first Billboard Hot 100 appearance. 00:13:55.480 --> 00:13:57.500 He was breaking into the national mainstream. 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:00.460 He wasn't just a drill rapper anymore. He was 00:14:00.460 --> 00:14:03.299 a hip hop artist, period. So we roll into early 00:14:03.299 --> 00:14:06.279 2020. The momentum is insane. It's just building 00:14:06.279 --> 00:14:09.059 and building. He drops Meet the Woo 2 on February 00:14:09.059 --> 00:14:12.259 7, 2020. And this project was huge. It debuted 00:14:12.259 --> 00:14:14.259 at number seven on the Billboard 200. That's 00:14:14.259 --> 00:14:17.299 his first top 10 project. He has Quavo on there, 00:14:17.460 --> 00:14:21.919 a Boogie Witta hoodie, Vivio Foran. He is solidifying 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:24.240 his place as the leader of the new school in 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:26.039 New York. And he was getting ready to hit the 00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:28.159 road. He was about to physically take this to 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:29.960 the people. Right. He was teasing the Meet the 00:14:29.960 --> 00:14:32.000 Woo tour. It was scheduled to start in the U 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.779 .S. in March and end in the U .K. in April. He's 00:14:34.779 --> 00:14:37.340 about to take this local sound global in a physical 00:14:37.340 --> 00:14:39.779 way. He was going to bring Brooklyn to London. 00:14:39.940 --> 00:14:41.620 It felt like the coronation was complete, like 00:14:41.620 --> 00:14:44.379 this is the guy now. It really did. But as we 00:14:44.379 --> 00:14:46.480 know, there were shadows creeping in. And this 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:48.309 is where the story gets complicated. Because 00:14:48.309 --> 00:14:51.389 while the music was skyrocketing, the legal issues 00:14:51.389 --> 00:14:53.769 were starting to pile up. And there's this one 00:14:53.769 --> 00:14:57.370 specific incident in January 2020 involving a 00:14:57.370 --> 00:15:00.889 Rolls Royce that just feels unnecessary. It's 00:15:00.889 --> 00:15:03.529 an unforced error. Completely. That's so baffling. 00:15:03.590 --> 00:15:05.529 It is baffling. And it really shows his age, 00:15:05.570 --> 00:15:09.970 his youth. So on January 17th, 2020, Pop Smoke 00:15:09.970 --> 00:15:12.649 is returning from Paris Fashion Week again, showing 00:15:12.649 --> 00:15:15.269 his status as a fashion icon. He's at the top 00:15:15.269 --> 00:15:18.110 of his game. And he lands at JFK Airport. And 00:15:18.110 --> 00:15:20.710 he gets arrested by federal authorities. The 00:15:20.710 --> 00:15:23.549 charge is interstate transportation of a stolen 00:15:23.549 --> 00:15:26.870 vehicle. Grand theft auto. For a Rolls -Royce 00:15:26.870 --> 00:15:28.889 Wraith, this is not a subtle car. Not at all. 00:15:28.909 --> 00:15:32.110 It's a $375 ,000 car. The narrative from the 00:15:32.110 --> 00:15:34.649 legal filings is that he borrowed it in California 00:15:34.649 --> 00:15:36.549 for a music video. Okay, that happens all the 00:15:36.549 --> 00:15:38.830 time. Right. The owner said the agreement was 00:15:38.830 --> 00:15:40.879 he would return it the next day. But investigators 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:43.220 believed Pop arranged for it to be transported 00:15:43.220 --> 00:15:45.799 on a flatbed truck all the way back to New York. 00:15:45.860 --> 00:15:48.580 From California to New York. Yes. And this is 00:15:48.580 --> 00:15:50.440 the part that makes you realize how young and 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:52.480 maybe naive he still was about the spotlight. 00:15:52.679 --> 00:15:54.960 He posted it on social media. He posted a photo 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:58.220 of himself with the stolen car on social media, 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:01.700 on Instagram and Facebook, with a different license 00:16:01.700 --> 00:16:03.759 plate, but still. And where did they find the 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:06.759 car? It was recovered at his mother's house in 00:16:06.759 --> 00:16:09.580 Canarsie. Oh, man. It wasn't exactly a sophisticated 00:16:09.580 --> 00:16:11.940 heist. It feels like a kid showing off a toy 00:16:11.940 --> 00:16:14.899 he wasn't supposed to keep. But the consequences 00:16:14.899 --> 00:16:17.779 were severe. But digging into the sources, it 00:16:17.779 --> 00:16:20.240 seems like the authorities were using this car 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:22.919 theft charge as a hook for something else. That's 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:25.159 the clearer subtext here. They weren't just interested 00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:28.379 in the Rolls Royce. No. After the arrest, police 00:16:28.379 --> 00:16:30.580 questioned him about a non -fatal shooting in 00:16:30.580 --> 00:16:34.080 Brooklyn from June 2019. They claim they had 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:36.340 footage of him driving a car in reverse near 00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:38.080 the scene. So they're trying to connect him to 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:40.059 other crimes. And the sources indicate they were 00:16:40.059 --> 00:16:42.019 really pressuring him for information on the 00:16:42.019 --> 00:16:45.879 Crips and the GS9 street gangs. GS9, famously 00:16:45.879 --> 00:16:48.279 associated with Bobby Shmurda and Rowdy Rebel. 00:16:48.440 --> 00:16:51.240 Correct. The NYPD has been trying to dismantle 00:16:51.240 --> 00:16:54.480 that structure for years. And Pop Smoke stood 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:57.379 his ground. He refused to talk. He refused to 00:16:57.379 --> 00:16:59.659 snitch. Which is a code in that world you just 00:16:59.659 --> 00:17:02.720 don't break. You don't break it. But because 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:06.200 of this, the system came down hard. He was charged 00:17:06.200 --> 00:17:08.619 with the grand theft auto, had to post a $250 00:17:08.619 --> 00:17:12.240 ,000 bond, and crucially, he agreed to stay away 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:14.660 from known gang members as a condition of his 00:17:14.660 --> 00:17:17.359 release. Which is practically impossible when 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:19.099 you're a drill rapper performing in New York. 00:17:19.180 --> 00:17:22.779 Your entourage, your security, your childhood 00:17:22.779 --> 00:17:25.359 friends, they are often from that world. It hindered 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:28.240 his career immediately. He had to cancel his 00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:30.880 performance at the BK Drip concert. at King's 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:33.579 Theater in Flatbush because authorities warned 00:17:33.579 --> 00:17:35.559 there would be known gang members in the audience. 00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:37.519 So they were boxing him in. They were squeezing 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:39.519 him. So even before the tragedy in L .A., the 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:42.759 walls were closing in a bit, legally. So let's 00:17:42.759 --> 00:17:45.200 move to February 2020. He's in Los Angeles. He's 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:46.920 renting a house in the Hollywood Hills. Right. 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:49.019 And here's a detail that always sticks out to 00:17:49.019 --> 00:17:51.720 me. The house was owned by a real housewife. 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:53.779 Yeah, it's one of those weird pop culture intersections 00:17:53.779 --> 00:17:56.140 that reminds you how small the celebrity world 00:17:56.140 --> 00:17:59.279 is. Oh. The Airbnb was owned by Teddy Mellencamp 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:02.160 Arroyo from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:05.200 and her husband. It's just such a strange, specific 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:08.500 detail. It is. It was a beautiful home high up 00:18:08.500 --> 00:18:10.920 in the hills. It should have been safe. It's 00:18:10.920 --> 00:18:12.960 not an area you stumble upon by accident. And 00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:17.099 it was February 19th, 2020, just 12 days after 00:18:17.099 --> 00:18:19.599 Meet the Woo 2 dropped and hit the top 10. 12 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:23.019 days. He was at the peak of his initial wave 00:18:23.019 --> 00:18:25.119 of success. What happened that night? It was 00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:27.670 a home invasion. In the early hours of the morning, 00:18:27.750 --> 00:18:30.730 around 4 .30 a .m., a group of individuals broke 00:18:30.730 --> 00:18:32.950 into the house. When he was there. He was there. 00:18:33.250 --> 00:18:35.549 Pop Smoke was shot and killed during the confrontation. 00:18:35.910 --> 00:18:38.990 He was 20 years old. It sent a shockwave through 00:18:38.990 --> 00:18:41.190 the world. I remember waking up to that news 00:18:41.190 --> 00:18:44.230 and just not believing it. It felt like he had 00:18:44.230 --> 00:18:46.329 just arrived. He was just getting started. It 00:18:46.329 --> 00:18:48.309 wasn't like hearing about an old legend passing. 00:18:48.529 --> 00:18:50.890 It was like watching a movie get turned off in 00:18:50.890 --> 00:18:53.190 the first act. It was the extinguishing of so 00:18:53.190 --> 00:18:55.849 much potential. And for a long time, there were 00:18:55.849 --> 00:18:58.769 questions about who did this and why. Was it 00:18:58.769 --> 00:19:01.490 targeted? Was it an assassination because of 00:19:01.490 --> 00:19:03.369 the gang ties the police were investigating? 00:19:03.609 --> 00:19:06.190 Or was it just a random robbery? Exactly. There 00:19:06.190 --> 00:19:08.730 were so many theories. And we actually have a 00:19:08.730 --> 00:19:11.009 significant update on the justice side of things 00:19:11.009 --> 00:19:14.470 moving all the way forward to 2025. This provides 00:19:14.470 --> 00:19:17.990 the context we were missing for years. Yes. The 00:19:17.990 --> 00:19:20.309 legal proceedings took a very long time. as they 00:19:20.309 --> 00:19:23.390 often do in complex cases. But according to our 00:19:23.390 --> 00:19:27.950 sources, on February 21, 2025, there was finally 00:19:27.950 --> 00:19:31.130 a conclusion for the adult defendant. A man named 00:19:31.130 --> 00:19:35.710 Corey Walker was sentenced to 29 years in prison. 00:19:36.029 --> 00:19:38.869 He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and 00:19:38.869 --> 00:19:41.299 home invasion. So it wasn't a murder charge in 00:19:41.299 --> 00:19:44.119 the end. It was a plea deal for voluntary manslaughter. 00:19:44.220 --> 00:19:45.559 Yeah. And there were others involved, right? 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:47.579 Younger individuals. Yes, three other individuals 00:19:47.579 --> 00:19:49.599 were involved. Because they were minors at the 00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:51.759 time, their cases were handled in juvenile court, 00:19:51.859 --> 00:19:54.279 but they were also convicted via plea deals. 00:19:54.500 --> 00:19:56.660 So what was the motive, according to the prosecution? 00:19:56.980 --> 00:19:59.380 The conclusion was that it wasn't a hit ordered 00:19:59.380 --> 00:20:02.819 by a rival gang. It was essentially... A robbery 00:20:02.819 --> 00:20:05.319 gone wrong. Just a robbery. A robbery driven 00:20:05.319 --> 00:20:08.099 by social media posts that inadvertently revealed 00:20:08.099 --> 00:20:11.019 the address of the Airbnb. So they saw him flashing 00:20:11.019 --> 00:20:13.519 cash or jewelry online, figured out where he 00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:15.940 was. He had posted a picture of some gift bags 00:20:15.940 --> 00:20:18.319 he received, and the address of the house was 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:20.579 partially visible on one of the labels. Wow. 00:20:20.700 --> 00:20:23.200 It's the cautionary tale that hangs over this 00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:26.559 entire generation of artists. The danger of oversharing 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:29.700 your location. It's a tragic mix of modern technology 00:20:29.700 --> 00:20:33.029 and old school street crime. so let's pivot because 00:20:33.029 --> 00:20:35.750 usually when an artist dies that is the end of 00:20:35.750 --> 00:20:38.390 the artistic output maybe a few unreleased tracks 00:20:38.390 --> 00:20:40.150 come out they sweep up the cutting room floor 00:20:40.150 --> 00:20:42.400 and that's it It's the end of the story. But 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:45.059 with Pop Smoke, the afterlife segment of his 00:20:45.059 --> 00:20:47.940 career is almost as big, if not bigger, than 00:20:47.940 --> 00:20:50.400 the life itself. And that is largely thanks to 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:53.480 one man, 50 Cent. This is a fascinating chapter. 00:20:53.720 --> 00:20:56.859 In March 2020, not long after the murder, 50 00:20:56.859 --> 00:20:59.220 Cent goes on Instagram and just announces it 00:20:59.220 --> 00:21:01.319 to the world. He's going to executive produce 00:21:01.319 --> 00:21:04.180 and finish Pop Smoke's debut album. 50 saw a 00:21:04.180 --> 00:21:06.200 lot of himself in Pop, didn't he? That same kind 00:21:06.200 --> 00:21:08.700 of energy. He did. He saw the energy, the charisma, 00:21:08.839 --> 00:21:11.920 the New York grit. 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die 00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:15.460 trying to redefine New York in 2003. He saw Pop 00:21:15.460 --> 00:21:17.819 Smoke doing the same thing for 2020. A passing 00:21:17.819 --> 00:21:21.500 of the torch, in a way. And 50 had a very specific 00:21:21.500 --> 00:21:24.920 personal motivation. He promised to get Plop's 00:21:24.920 --> 00:21:27.579 mother to an awards show. That was a goal Pop 00:21:27.579 --> 00:21:30.799 had, to take his mom to the awards. 50 Cent took 00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:32.819 that on as a personal mission. He wanted to fulfill 00:21:32.819 --> 00:21:35.700 that promise. That's powerful. So 50 hits the 00:21:35.700 --> 00:21:38.460 phones. He calls Drake. He calls Roddy Ricch. 00:21:38.460 --> 00:21:41.559 He calls Chris Brown. He mobilizes the industry 00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:44.440 like a general. He curated the album, Shoot for 00:21:44.440 --> 00:21:47.619 the Stars, Aim for the Moon. But it wasn't without 00:21:47.619 --> 00:21:50.220 controversy. Remember the cover art debacle? 00:21:50.359 --> 00:21:52.980 Oh, the Virgil Abloh cover. I remember that vividly. 00:21:52.980 --> 00:21:54.539 It was all over Twitter. People were furious. 00:21:54.759 --> 00:21:57.200 Virgil Abloh, God rest his soul, was a genius. 00:21:57.740 --> 00:22:00.339 But he designed the original artwork. And when 00:22:00.339 --> 00:22:04.279 it was revealed, the fans, they hated it. They 00:22:04.279 --> 00:22:06.319 felt it was disrespectful. They called it lazy, 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:08.900 rushed, like it was done in 10 minutes on Photoshop. 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:11.980 There was literally a Change .org petition with 00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:14.480 tens of thousands of signatures asking to change 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:17.160 it. And they actually listened. which is rare 00:22:17.160 --> 00:22:19.420 for a major label rollout. It's almost unheard 00:22:19.420 --> 00:22:22.180 of. They did, in a very rare move, they swapped 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:24.039 it out at the last minute. And Pop's mom chose 00:22:24.039 --> 00:22:26.400 the final one, right? She did. She chose the 00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:28.619 final design. The chrome rose against the black 00:22:28.619 --> 00:22:31.599 background, designed by Ryder Rips. It was classy, 00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:34.720 dark, and iconic. It fit the music much better. 00:22:34.859 --> 00:22:36.900 And the album's release was also pushed back 00:22:36.900 --> 00:22:39.200 slightly. Right. It was slated for June, but 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:41.319 got pushed to July out of respect for the George 00:22:41.319 --> 00:22:43.559 Floyd protests that were happening. Instead, 00:22:43.799 --> 00:22:45.900 they released the lead single, Make It Rain. 00:22:46.279 --> 00:22:48.619 Which featured Rowdy Rebel. Recording his verse 00:22:48.619 --> 00:22:51.019 from prison over a collect call. You can't get 00:22:51.019 --> 00:22:53.359 more New York than that. So the album Shoot for 00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:56.339 the Stars, Aim for the Moon finally drops in 00:22:56.339 --> 00:23:00.960 July 2020. And the numbers, they are staggering. 00:23:01.220 --> 00:23:03.819 It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. 00:23:04.140 --> 00:23:06.299 It was massive. But here's the stat that blows 00:23:06.299 --> 00:23:08.099 me away. The one that really shows the dominance. 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:10.460 What is it? All 19 tracks from the album entered 00:23:10.460 --> 00:23:13.849 the Billboard Hot 100. Every single song. That 00:23:13.849 --> 00:23:16.029 is dominance. That is Michael Jackson, Drake 00:23:16.029 --> 00:23:18.789 -level dominance. For a debut album. A posthumous 00:23:18.789 --> 00:23:21.029 debut album. It is. For the night with Lil Baby 00:23:21.029 --> 00:23:23.450 and Day Baby hit number six. What You Know About 00:23:23.450 --> 00:23:26.210 Love, which sampled Ginuwine, hit number nine. 00:23:26.289 --> 00:23:28.329 He was everywhere. He was the soundtrack of the 00:23:28.329 --> 00:23:30.609 pandemic summer. You couldn't escape the woo. 00:23:30.869 --> 00:23:32.789 You really couldn't. And he kept making history 00:23:32.789 --> 00:23:35.730 even into 2021. This wasn't a one -off. Right. 00:23:36.029 --> 00:23:38.660 His second posthumous album, Faith. released 00:23:38.660 --> 00:23:41.700 in 2021, also debuted at number one. That made 00:23:41.700 --> 00:23:44.500 Pop Smoke the first artist ever to have their 00:23:44.500 --> 00:23:47.079 first two posthumous albums debut at the top 00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:49.660 of the charts. It's just a level of success that 00:23:49.660 --> 00:23:51.779 he never got to see. Never. And we even got to 00:23:51.779 --> 00:23:55.059 see him act. He played Monk in the film Boogie. 00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:57.880 And he wasn't just like a cameo. He was the main 00:23:57.880 --> 00:24:00.339 antagonist. He was the rival basketball player, 00:24:00.420 --> 00:24:02.940 which is so ironic given his own life story. 00:24:03.160 --> 00:24:05.299 And he was good. He had that natural screen presence. 00:24:05.640 --> 00:24:07.900 It wasn't forced. It just adds another layer. 00:24:08.349 --> 00:24:10.869 To the tragedy, he could have been a true multi 00:24:10.869 --> 00:24:13.690 -hyphenate star, rapper, actor, fashion icon. 00:24:13.869 --> 00:24:16.769 He had the charisma to carry a film. No question. 00:24:16.890 --> 00:24:18.950 So let's try to synthesize this. We have a kid 00:24:18.950 --> 00:24:20.910 with a heart murmur from Canarsie who, in under 00:24:20.910 --> 00:24:23.349 two years, connects the U .K. and U .S. drill 00:24:23.349 --> 00:24:26.470 scenes, becomes the face of New York rap, dies 00:24:26.470 --> 00:24:28.869 tragically, and then dominates the church from 00:24:28.869 --> 00:24:31.170 the grave. It is the definition of a shooting 00:24:31.170 --> 00:24:34.799 star. Bright, fast, and leaving an afterimage 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:37.700 that lasts a long, long time. He reintroduced 00:24:37.700 --> 00:24:40.339 the Brooklyn drill sound to the world. He proved 00:24:40.339 --> 00:24:42.200 that New York could still innovate, that it didn't 00:24:42.200 --> 00:24:44.960 just have to rely on nostalgia for the 90s. He 00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:48.180 took the cold, mechanical sound of UK beats and 00:24:48.180 --> 00:24:51.019 injected it with New York swagger. And he gave 00:24:51.019 --> 00:24:54.279 a voice to a specific feeling, that feeling of 00:24:54.279 --> 00:24:56.660 being invincible, even when you are vulnerable. 00:24:56.980 --> 00:24:59.359 You cannot say pop and forget the smoke. Precisely. 00:24:59.660 --> 00:25:01.640 And if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:04.900 think about the trajectory he was on. He had 00:25:04.900 --> 00:25:07.019 just cracked the top 10 days before he died. 00:25:07.380 --> 00:25:09.920 He had 50 Cent in his corner as a mentor. And 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:11.539 he had the work ethic. Remember, he recorded 00:25:11.539 --> 00:25:14.160 all that music, two full albums worth of material, 00:25:14.299 --> 00:25:17.259 plus mixtapes, in just a year or so. He wasn't 00:25:17.259 --> 00:25:19.119 lazy. Not at all. He was constantly working. 00:25:19.339 --> 00:25:21.480 So here's the final provocative thought I want 00:25:21.480 --> 00:25:24.180 to leave with you today. We look at the landscape 00:25:24.180 --> 00:25:26.839 of hip -hop right now. It's fractured. It's shifting. 00:25:27.500 --> 00:25:30.160 If Pop Smoke survives that night in the Hollywood 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:34.779 Hills, if he goes on that tour, if he continues 00:25:34.779 --> 00:25:38.039 to evolve that sound, it's like, does New York 00:25:38.039 --> 00:25:40.579 hip -hop look completely different today? I think 00:25:40.579 --> 00:25:42.880 it's impossible to say it wouldn't. He was pulling 00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:44.740 the center of gravity back to the East Coast. 00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:47.599 Does he become the Drake or the Kendrick of his 00:25:47.599 --> 00:25:50.220 generation, the undisputed top guy? I think he 00:25:50.220 --> 00:25:53.559 absolutely had the potential to be a global superstar 00:25:53.559 --> 00:25:56.519 on that level. He had the melody. the aggression, 00:25:56.619 --> 00:25:59.420 and the look. The genre lost a potential king. 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:02.220 We missed out on a decade of evolution. A heavy 00:26:02.220 --> 00:26:04.400 what if to end on. If you haven't listened to 00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:06.480 him in a while, go play Dior or Welcome to the 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:09.299 Party today. Listen with fresh ears. Hear the 00:26:09.299 --> 00:26:11.559 church drums from his childhood, hear the London 00:26:11.559 --> 00:26:14.420 rain in the beat, and hear the voice of Canarsie. 00:26:14.539 --> 00:26:17.539 It's a sound that will never truly clear. Thanks 00:26:17.539 --> 00:26:19.140 for diving in with us. We'll catch you on the 00:26:19.140 --> 00:26:19.440 next one.