Album: Pop Smoke – Faith
On the second posthumous album from Pop Smoke, we get a glimpse of the late rapper's mindset in the period before he died and of the seemingly limitless potential of his singular voice. The second half—on songs like “Woo Baby” and “Mr. Jones”—spotlights the agile melodies he was beginning to employ; “8-Ball” introduces an especially bluesy version that summons even more possibilities. The first half, though, is where he shines with his signature style. It's especially there on songs like “30” and “Brush Em”, which feature fellow Brooklyn drill rappers Bizzy Banks and Rah Swish, and in other flashes, even as the sounds around him shift. As with Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon, Faith is heavy on features in order to fill out the song fragments he left behind. This one pairs him with the likes of Kanye West, Pusha T, Rick Ross and Pharrell as well as would-be peers like 42 Dugg, 21 Savage and Lil Tjay. It's rarely disappointing to hear Pop doing what he did best, but it's also impossible not to wonder how he would've approached these songs had he been here—still creating, still innovating, still evolving. Nevertheless, Pop Smoke's magic lives on, even if only in frustratingly fleeting moments.