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When Malluchi Boateng, 21, first heard Pop Smoke’s music last year, he “fell in love” with it.
As rapper Shoot For The Stars’ posthumous album Aim For The Moon was released on Friday, Malluchi tells Radio 1 Newsbeat that he’s thankful he has something to hold on to.
“I will honestly play this album for my future children. It is incredible.
“I had been waiting all day for him to come out, I listened immediately.”
He says the release of such a “special album”, Pop Smoke’s debut, was bittersweet.
“While I was really enjoying the songs, I thought, ‘Wow, this is the last one I’ll listen to.'”
The American rapper, real name Bashar Barakah Jackson, was killed in an alleged robbery in February at the age of 20.
‘Destined for great things’
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Malluchi Boateng
Malluchi says Pop Smoke was “destined for great things”
Pop Smoke only released their debut mixtape in 2019, but it was already having a huge impact on hip-hop.
It had been co-signed by 50 Cent, who was the executive producer on the posthumous album, which features a sample of the classic 50 Cent song Many Men from the 50’s debut album.
Malluchi says: “He was definitely destined for great things.
“If you look at what he did in about 14 months of his career, most artists do it in five or six years.”
Malluchi’s friend Jaimie chimes in: “The reason we love Pop Smoke so much in the UK is because it brought the music scenes of the United States and the UK together.”
“We’ve had a ton of collaborations in the UK and the United States before, but Pop Smoke actually used UK producers and rapped on UK punching beats.”
Pop Smoke often worked with East London producer 808Melo, helping to give the Brooklyn artist a sound more familiar to London.
He had relationships with artists like AJ Tracey, Fredo, and Dave, and his previous mixtape featured freestyle to the beat of the iconic Headie One Know Better tune.
“You have something unique with rap in Brooklyn, where it was created by the UK production,” says music journalist Abubakar Finiin.
“All this new sound that was bubbling through Brooklyn was created by 808 Melo, AXL beats, these UK producers shaped it.”
Abubakar says that originally the artists in Brooklyn didn’t even know that the producers were British.
“They were just kicking the beats off YouTube.”
But eventually the two sub-genres evolved together “with each other,” and Abubakar says Pop Smoke in particular was noted to have “made an effort to understand the UK scene.”
“The UK has something we can see who the new rap stars in America are, it’s weird. Pop Smoke was the front runner on that.”
“It’s a shame we haven’t seen it come true.”
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Pop Smoke performed with Skepta at shows in London, Glasgow and Birmingham late last year
Jaimie felt the excitement of exercises from the United Kingdom and the United States crossing the music of Pop Smoke.
“The musical culture was changing,” he says.
Jaimie thinks that Pop Smoke was still “evolving” with each album and that this album contains a “genre mix”.
“He tried 50 Cent’s Many Men, a classic tune. He’s mixing the old school with the new school, he’s very creative.
“It’s really sad that we don’t get any more albums from him.”
Controversy over album cover
Malluchi, like many, was pleased to see that the album had a new cover.
It was originally created by street clothing designer Virgil Abloh and had been called “lazy”. Requests for it to be changed were signed tens of thousands of times.
“I hated the first one, it was poorly done,” says Malluchi.
“The new one is decent, it’s much better than the first one.”
Speaking about the time he saw Pop Smoke perform in a college rave in Leicester, Malluchi says, “I was so sick. It was one of my first concerts, so I’m glad I got to see it.
“I gave him my phone and he shot a Snapchat video on stage. After that night, I just loved him.”
Jaimie agrees that “the energy he brought was different,” and when Jaimie starts singing the chorus to Dior, he says “you can’t listen to a Pop Smoke song and be sad.”
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