AOTY #7: Pop Smoke - Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon [2020]

Welcome to my Album of the Year highlights! I’ll give you a little run down with a brief history to start, show you the tracklist (with the tracks in bold being my favorites) with all of the featured guests (if any), give you some descriptors that might make you more inclined to check it out, and I’ll provide links to stream/buy the project down at the bottom. Enjoy!

Posthumous albums are difficult. It always turns out to be a balancing act between a respect for the artists direction and bringing on people who want to collaborate with the artist knowing that the person in question fucked with them in life. That’s why I think 50 Cent did a magnificent job with this album right here, a project that Pop Smoke never got to see out to release because of his tragic murder at the top of 2020, and one that, without the artist being present, takes his sound exactly in the direction he wanted to go in life. It is a mix of modern trap sensibility and the fresh subset of Drill music that has taken root in Brooklyn, NY in the past few years, giving you rapping and beats that can feel both familiar and foreign, a truly new sound for popular hip-hop. There are a ton of features on here as well, but it never feels like people that Pop Smoke didn’t want to work with, or artists who are looking to cash in on Pop Smoke image, but instead consisting of people in his close circle, as well as other who truly want to pay their respects in the best way they know how. This album is one of those that was given a deluxe that ended up being an entirely different album, which essential serves as a Meet The Woo 3; these tracks are fantastic, but the base album was a bit more forward thinking in my opinion, and is the true “must-listen”. The reality is that, with Pop Smoke’s passing, the NY Drill scene has been permanently handicapped; but we were blessed with one classic, one genre-defining piece to hold on to forever. RIP to Pop Smoke, and thank you for everything you gave the game.

Tracklist

1. Bad Bitch From Tokyo (Intro)

2. Aim for the Moon (Feat. Quavo)

3. For the Night (Feat. Lil Baby & DaBaby)

4. 44 Bulldog

5. Gangstas

6. Yea Yea

7. Creature (Feat. Swae Lee)

8. Snitching (Feat. Quavo & Future)

9. Make It Rain (Feat. Rowdy Rebel)

10. The Woo (Feat. 50 Cent & Roddy Ricch)

11. West Coast Shit (Feat. Quavo & Tyga)

12. Enjoy Yourself (Feat. Karol G)

13. Mood Swings (Feat. Lil Tjay)

14. Something Special

15. What You Know Bout Love

16. Diane (Feat. King Combs)

17. Got It On Me

18. Tunnel Vision (Outro)

19. Dior [Bonus Track]

The dude had a look, a style, and a voice that set himself up for stardom in Hip-Hop, a clear next up who was looking to bring an entirely fresh energy to the game in a way we hadn’t seen in a while. The loss can be measured by the content we’ve already experienced, but it is heavily outweighed by both the loss in potential classics and the life of a young man ready to take on the world.

Recommended if you like:

High-effort trap beats, Stormzy, London Drill, Headie One, charismatic emcees, Migos, hedonistic lyrics, 50 Cent, inventive and fresh flows, Max B, raspy and smoky-voiced rappers

Here are my original writings on Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon:

Weekly Fix #27 ('20)

↓ Listen to Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon ↓

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music