[Pop Smoke's] death has nothing to do with the drug overdoses that killed fellow hip-hop stars Lil Peep and Mac Miller and Juice Wrld. But it does add to a sense that the establishment in hip-hop... is struggling to look after these near-teenagers who suddenly find themselves surrounded by outsized money and fame. | | | | Pop Smoke at the Astroworld Festival, Houston, Nov. 9, 2019.
(Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "[Pop Smoke's] death has nothing to do with the drug overdoses that killed fellow hip-hop stars Lil Peep and Mac Miller and Juice Wrld. But it does add to a sense that the establishment in hip-hop... is struggling to look after these near-teenagers who suddenly find themselves surrounded by outsized money and fame."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// BASHAR JACKSON, better known as POP SMOKE, had a low, gravelly voice that skated with a kind of anxious grace across the surface of spare beats, weighed down by low-frequency kick drums and even lower bass notes, that echoed in perfect sympathy with him. There was space in the music and darkness in the lyrics. He was 20. "He sounds like he's 60. He sounds like his vocal chords are made of scorched asphalt and ground-up glass," STEREOGUM's TOM BREIHAN wrote exactly one week ago in a column that suggested he could be the first major star from Brooklyn's burgeoning drill scene. Brooklyn drill is a variation of Chicago drill—dark, raw, sometimes menacing—filtered through the sonic innovations of UK drill. He had been rapping for less than two years. A onetime prep school basketball player, he had been sidetracked by both a heart murmur and what profiles of him tended to refer to as "trouble." Trouble, in various forms, was always there. It followed him into his lyrics, too; in "PTSD," from his first mixtape, released seven months ago, there are a hundred gang members standing on someone's lawn saying, "open the door... I know you home." It's hard, maybe impossible, to listen to those ominous lines today. There were real-life run-ins with the law, and a desire to leave a more hopeful legacy. His music, he told the NEW YORK TIMES last year, was for people like him who "got to carry their guns to school because it ain't safe, but they still got to make sure they get they diploma 'cause they mom could be happy." (In the same interview, reporter JON CARAMANICA described Pop Smoke and an entourage driving on the BROOKLYN-QUEENS EXPRESSWAY in a shifting, "defensive" formation that seemed like "the type of behavior exhibited by those who are mindful that something unexpectedly awful could happen at any moment." More omens.) Pop Smoke's early songs were made with beats cribbed, without permission, from the London producer 808MELOBEATS. The rapper and producer eventually found each other and started working together properly, and fruitfully. The sonic synergy was immense. "WELCOME TO THE PARTY," a moody and minimalist three-minute wonder that is but also sort of isn't a party song, blew up in New York, and eventually everywhere else, last summer with the help of remixes featuring NICKI MINAJ and SKEPTA. There was a music video with TRAVIS SCOTT at the end of 2019. A second mixtape, MEET THE WOO 2, came out two weeks ago and debuted at #7 on the BILLBOARD 200. A major tour was scheduled to begin in two weeks in Washington, D.C. A 2020 star was being born. Exactly what happened Wednesday morning in the Hollywood Hills, and why, is still being pieced together. What's known is that a group of people, one wearing a mask, broke into a house Pop Smoke was renting from a REAL HOUSEWIVES star, and from where he had been posting INSTAGRAM pictures the night before, and fatally shot him. As of Wednesday night, the suspects were at large. Police suspected the murder was gang-related, though they didn't suggest a motive. They also told the LOS ANGELES TIMES that "homes being rented by musicians have been the targets of several home invasions" in recent years. New York is in deep mourning today. "Death wasn't in the cards," PITCHFORK's ALPHONSE PIERRE, who grew up in Canarsie, the same neighborhood as Pop Smoke, wrote on Wednesday. "Pop Smoke made it, he got out, it was supposed to be different." RIP... Go-go is the official music of Washington, D.C., by law... BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY are officially, um, boneless. Except for LAYZIE BONE, who has opted out of this promotion... There are now two JUDAS PRIESTs... RIP also BUZZY LINHART and NAOKI IIJIMA. | | | - Matty Karas, curator | | | |  | The FADER | | NYC drill firebrand Pop Smoke has the whole city behind him, and he's just getting started. | | | |  | The New York Times | | A rising star in rap, he was known for hit songs like "Dior" and "Welcome to the Party." The police said intruders broke into his residence sometime before 5 a.m. Wednesday. | | | |  | NPR | | It started somewhat humbly on Saturday, Feb. 14, 1970. Valentine's Day. David Mancuso, a 25-year-old upstate-to-New-York transplant, was in need of money to pay the landlord of his downtown Manhattan loft, not yet The Loft, at 647 Broadway. | | | |  | Trapital | | The Houston rapper became a superstar by finding arbitrage opportunities in the industry and exploiting the hell out of them. | | | |  | MusicAlly | | Catalogue marketing used to mainly be about the 20th anniversary box set (with some demos and a couple of new photos added in) or about the same 15 songs in a slightly different order, popped in a slightly different sleeve and called a "best of". Streaming has changed that completely. | | | |  | The Guardian | | Claire Boucher has spent a decade battling the press to reclaim her reputation. Dating Elon Musk means she's never been more controversial - but could her new album set her free? | | | |  | Paper | | The Hop Along frontwoman talks her debut solo album "Likewise." | | | |  | Billboard | | Universal Music's revenue growth is outpacing the industry's growth but even better, as profit margins are outpacing its own revenue growth. | | | |  | POLITICO | | New Jersey Democratic Reps. Bill Pascrell and Frank Pallone Jr. are spearheading legislation aimed at cracking down on ticket gougers, scalpers and bots that scoop up seats and sell them on the secondary market at a higher cost. | | | |  | The Ringer | | Chuck Klosterman and Chris Ryan parse the role music plays in their lives and the world around them. | | | | | MusicAlly | | Sometimes the statistics around how many people are streaming music - and how many are paying for it - can lead to confusion and misinterpretation. | | | |  | Refinery29 | | Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast got sober, got therapy, and got busy writing a new album. And none of it was easy. | | | | | Billboard | | Flighthouse and Republic Records have partnered on the new TikTok series "Certified Superfan," in which Republic artists surprise their biggest admirers. | | | |  | Chicago Reader | | Alicia Greco's weekly podcast has already posted 110 mixes, fostering a community that won't stay marginalized much longer. | | | | | The Guardian | | Dave's powerful performance at the Brit awards was a landmark moment for the music and politics of black Britain. | | | |  | She Shreds | | Throughout her career, the legendary Joan Armatrading has embraced a righteousness that we should all be so inspired to welcome in to our own music. | | | |  | Electronic Beats | | With 'Good Time' and now 'Uncut Gems', Daniel Lopatin has composed the best neo-noir music in years. | | | | | The New York Times | | The 18-year-old musician has seemed reluctant to become the next-gen poster girl of pop culture's most time-tested institutions. But she happily slipped into one coveted, Boomer-approved role. | | | |  | Adam Neely | | I spent a week trying to like CCM. I'm not sure if I succeeded, but I did learn about the idea of musicking, and music as an action rather than a thing. | | | |  | Pitchfork | | New York was going to get it right this time, I just knew it. Seeing Pop Smoke emerge from thin air at the end of 2018 with " MPR (Panic Part 3 Remix)" felt special. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
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