Pop Smoke may be gone, but he won't be forgotten, thanks to a series of fellow artists, collaborators, friends and family members who are dedicated to keeping the gone-too-soon rapper's legacy alive. His label, headed up by Steven Victor, was quick to make a move on the rapper's first post-humous release, although not without its own trials along the way.
A week before the album was expected to drop, Pop Smoke's team had to scramble to re-do Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon's cover artwork after the Virgil Abloh-designed cover was heavily criticized by any and everyone, including executive producer 50 Cent, when it was first revealed. This was probably the most public point of contention, however, surely there were also debates and conversations that the fans were not privy too, which went into deciding the final tracklist and things of that sort. Now that the album is out and the guest features have all been revealed, the public is weighing in further on right or wrong decisions therein.
It seems the Tyga feature has been dissected as one such wrong decision, while fans have also been calling into question the contribution from Karol G, who may have replaced a Burna Boy feature. Most of these discussions are taking place across twitter, and while fans are driving the conversation, it appears that even Calboy isn't fully pleased with the tracklist either.
Calboy took to twitter to vent about his exclusion from the final tracklist, writing that he had even been plotting a music video with Pop Smoke and King Combs, who appears on "Diana."
"On Wesley grave y’all bogus asf for taking me off pop smoke album," Calboy vented "but then keep my fucking adlibs....two days before my boy passed away we was planning a vid wit me combs n him ..how y’all play it like tht ..ion respect that shit at all .." Despite his displeasure, he ended the tweet with a note promoting that the album is indeed "out now."
Check out the tweet below, and go stream Pop Smoke's new album here.
