Check out Pop Smoke’s posthumous track, ‘AP’
The song, which features in the new movie 'Boogie,' dropped at midnight, a year after the face of Brooklyn drill was murdered in LA at 20
The face of Brooklyn drill still has something to say: The late Pop Smoke’s posthumous track “AP” dropped at midnight. Hear it in full below.
The song will appear in the film “Boogie,” Eddie Huang’s coming-of-age story of Queens basketball prodigy, in which Pop also makes his film debut. Pop plays Monk, the on-court rival to the titular Alfred “Boogie” Chin. The film is out on March 5.
It’s almost hard to believe that it’s been a year since Pop, né Bashar Barakah Jackson, was shot and killed in a home invasion while staying at a rental in Los Angeles. Jackson’s career was too brief but burned brightly, perhaps most famously for his 2019 hit song “Welcome to the Party.” That track was mixed by ASAP Ferg, Meek Mill, Pusha T and others. It got an assist a few months later from a remix featuring Nicki Minaj.
Listen to “AP” here:
Jackson got his start in 2018 when visiting a Brooklyn recording studio with fellow rapper Jay Gwuapo—Jackson took the liberty of popping into the booth when Gwuapo got high and passed out. His debut mixtape, “Meet the Woo,” was released in July 2019 and he worked consistently and steadily from that point on. His second mixtape, titled “Meet the Woo 2,” was released on February 7 of last year days before his murder on the 19th.
Jackson was among those who would define the sound of Brooklyn drill, a combination of trap music, Chicago and UK drill music often punctuated by sliding 808s and manipulated vocal samples. Not overtly political, his lyrics tended to focus on a luxe lifestyle. Still, his song “Dior,” became a surprising fixture at the George Floyd protests in New York as a symbol of resistance.
