"Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon" by Pop Smoke

After the meteoric success of his series of mixtapes Meet the Woo and Meet the Woo 2, Pop Smoke has posthumously debuted his first studio album, Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon. Gliding over a sonically diverse landscape speckled with concrete jungles and Caribbean beaches alike, this album cements Smoke’s legacy as a pioneer of contemporary trap, and mourns the loss of a young artist on the brink of apotheosis. 

In just two years, Smoke has led a new wave of NY hip-hop into the public eye. With the Meet the Woo mixtapes, he introduced the world to drill, a genre bred on the streets of Chicago and London, and refined in New York. A sub-genre of trap, drill is characterized by dark, standoffish lyricism, paired with haunting samples and a distinctive, frenetic bass/hi-hat mix. While both Woo tapes are front-to-back drill, emblematic of the abrasive climate in which the youth of East Brooklyn unfortunately find themselves, Shoot for the Stars interpolates pop rap and dips Smoke’s toes into genres beyond, such as R&B and reggaeton. On the chart-climbing track “Mood Swings”, for example, he lays aside his Glock-toting machismo to serenade a sweetheart. The smoky timbre of his voice, which surely lends itself to his moniker, reverently interweaves with Brooklyn-adjacent Lil Tjay’s high pitched voice to shower the unnamed shawty with admiration. 

Although these songs venture beyond his typical style, Smoke would be remiss to leave off the earthquaking drill hits which thrust him into the limelight. The beauty of drill comes from a tension between industrial and orchestral ingredients. While the melodies feature lithe woodwinds, strings, and choirs, the percussion always carries the percussive, indomitable strength of factory machinery, gridlocked traffic, and urban construction. Take, for example, “Tunnel Vision”, which features primarily a flute and glockenspiel in the melody. We would expect these instruments to provide an air of lightheartedness, of ease. But with their juxtaposition against the heavy sub-bass and busy drum sequence, the instrumental bolsters Smoke’s abrasive lyricism with the strength of concrete. 

Having built a close professional relationship with Atlanta-native Quavo, Smoke has extended his circle from East Coast trap to include the greater hip-hop community. Shoot for the Stars features verses from Smoke’s contemporaries, fellow chart-toppers Lil Baby, DaBaby, etc., and his predecessors, such as Jamie Foxx and 50 Cent (who, in addition to executive producing the album, admiringly refers to the late rapper as “his son”). 50 and Smoke trade verses on “The Woo”, an energetic summer hit one would find on a Bahamaian island, and Smoke goes onto interpolate 50’s trademark “Many Men'' on the triumphant “Got It On Me”. Had his murder been prevented, Smoke would surely have continued in 50’s footsteps. Songs like “Got It On Me” and so many more remind us of the stark reality of gang violence that Smoke carried with him, and the inescapable feuds that eventually led to his death. However, in the two short years of his career, Smoke indisputably carved a self-portrait into the hip-hop canon, opening the door for his fellow drill artists. 

– Miles Monga