POP SMOKE - Faith 2xLP

Label: Republic

The second posthumous release from the tragically short-lived rapper, Pop Smoke’s latest album testifies to his after-life in contemporary hip-hop, marrying the skeleton architecture of his signature sound alongside a cast of star-studded artists and producers.

Whereas Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, the rapper’s official studio debut, served as a larger-than-life celebration and eulogy for the fallen star, Faith adopts a different tack: trading its preceding record’s anthemic, braggadocios sheen with a more introspective outlook on the nature and permanence of stardom.

Often derided as inherently exploitative, the practice of releasing music in the aftermath of an artist’s passing is a well-documented phenomena in popular culture. Unlike the majority of such releases, Faith speaks to Pop Smoke’s perpetuity in hip-hop’s current context, serving as less of a lament of what could have been and more as a memorial for what was and still is.