Everyone remembers their first.
A lot of people say 2pac or Biggie, but for me it was Stack Bundles, it happened the day after my high school graduation. I woke up, checked Worldstar and saw the headline “STACK BUNDLES, DEAD AT 25”. I was stunned, it didn’t make sense. Stack was supposed to do so much more, he was one of my favorite rappers. I liked Stack because he could be funny, and had so much swag about him that he could make ridiculous shit cool. The reason I initially like Gucci Mane is because he reminded me of Stack. He was fun, had a swag that NY rappers didn’t have, and was finally getting his shine as a member of Byrdgang. Things were about to change. Unfortunately, he was another victim to the streets. I didn’t cry but the world lost some color that day. It’s always tragic when a rapper is taken out BEFORE their prime, because now you never know what they were destined to be. When I woke up and saw Pop Smoke was gone, I felt the colors around me dull the same way.
So with that, lets get into his recent tape, “Meet The Woo 2”
When I first heard Pop Smoke I was scared as shit. Son’s voice was mad deep and every song sounded like someone getting robbed/shot/jumped. This was gangsta music, like reckless gangsta music. Like if the young niggas Wise and LaKid from Belly made music while aggressively going through puberty, it’d sound like Pop Smoke. I say “aggressively” because Pop Smoke was 20 but his voice was like one of those groaning trees from Mortal Kombat 2. Dude had the face of a high school senior and the voice of a Dementor from Harry Potter. Every time he says “Dior” it sounds like a felony. His beats were just as menacing; shit they were downright spooky. If you replaced the Juice soundtrack with Pop Smoke beats, Bishop would’ve been scarier than Candyman. It was so dope though! He made music that women could vibe to and niggas with knives could dance to.
“Meet The Woo 2” is a great example of what made Pop Smoke great. While he knew exactly what he was good at, he knew how to take creative risks. Pop Smoke could’ve easily stuck to making spooky crip anthems, however he clearly had an ear to do more. You could always tell when he worked with a new artist because some of their essence would show in his own music. He had fun rapping, granted a lot of his songs were about stabbing niggas, but you could hear the excitement in his voice about making music. He found a place for his voice and he was excited to see where things went. It’s tragic his life was cut so short. Brooklyn would’ve gone crazy for that Pop Smoke x Bobby Shmurda song that you just KNEW was coming. We were all gonna be Crips and it was gonna be so awesome. Now all we can think is what if.
It doesn’t feel right to rate “Meet The Woo 2”, it’s not perfect, but the potential you hear in Pops music will never be fulfilled and that hurts. I enjoyed it before he passed and I’ll enjoy it in the future. So, I recommend that you check it out and celebrate the what he was able to accomplish while he was here.
RIP Pop Smoke