Pop Smoke’s Legacy and the Sound of Brooklyn Rap
A discussion of the late rapper’s life and influence, on the latest episode of our new podcast The Pitchfork Review
On February 19, 2019, Pop Smoke’s life was tragically cut short, when he was shot and killed at the age of 20. At the time of his death, the rapper was a leading light of Brooklyn drill, the hyper-local scene that had quickly become the premier NYC hip-hop subgenre. With hits like “Welcome to the Party” and “Dior,” Pop had helped reinvigorate interest in New York hip-hop overall. His posthumous album Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon was released on July 3. Listen to this week’s episode of The Pitchfork Review as Editor Puja Patel sits down with Pitchfork Staff Writer Alphonse Pierre and Contributing Writer Sheldon Pearce to discuss Pop Smoke’s come up and legacy, Brooklyn drill and its intersections with policing and protests, and the new album.
Listen to this week’s episode above, and subscribe to The Pitchfork Review for free on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also check out an excerpt of the podcast’s transcript below. For more on Pop Smoke, check out Al’s article, “Remembering Pop Smoke, Brooklyn Rap’s Key Figure Gone Too Soon,” as well as his review of Pop Smoke’s posthumous album, Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon.
Puja Patel: Why is [Pop Smoke’s “Dior”] something that people want to be playing at a party and a rally?
Alphonse Pierre: I know for me, “Dior” brings me back to a time when I wasn’t thinking about pain and police brutality 24/7. Even if you take it back to last summer, July 2019, “Dior” was pretty much everywhere. It's a song that you would hear playing out of car windows, playing off the roofs, playing at parties, playing when you’re just sitting down chilling. It brings you back to that time.
PP: It's so funny to think about nostalgia for 10 months ago.
Sheldon Pearce: Yeah. Tell me about it. Any music that was released before the pandemic feels like it happened a decade ago. But it’s interesting because Pop Smoke is still some of the only music that feels present. And I think that’s part of the reason why it has been lingering in this moment.
AP: Yeah, even thinking about “Dior,” you could really imagine what Pop Smoke’s day was probably like when he made that song. Like he probably hopped in the car with his friends from Canarsie, probably drove to SoHo, like down the BQE. Probably double parked somewhere. Probably just, like, smoked out the window on the highway, people were beeping at them. And like, that’s just the type of energy that any New York kid wants to be on. Like, they don’t want to be thinking about the police harassing them. They don’t want to be thinking about everything that’s going on in the neighborhood. They just want to chill, cop some clothes. And that’s what “Dior” is, you know?
SP: And the music, it feels so good. You can feel it in your chest. I think it being chantable really goes a long way towards its power in protests. It really just does go off live. It’s like it’s in the air. You feel it, you feel that shit, man. There’s nothing like it.
So I think that really speaks to why it’s touching people as they go out into the streets, as they fight police brutality and fight for police reform. Especially given his role as this figure who has been antagonized by the police almost his entire career. That kind of surveillance is just part of being a Black artist in the rap community, especially for drill music.