Pop Smoke is an artist whose meteoric rise ended just as quickly as it began. To be honest, the outpouring of love and support after his death was surprising, as I heard little from him or about him prior to it. However, what little I did hear was quite good. For example, “Dior” is a track that will probably be responsible for a United States and United Kingdom zeitgeist in rap music, as the UK drill instrumental on that song is unlike anything that many American rap fans had heard before while still being so similar to our current musical conventions.

Pop Smoke’s short period in the spotlight has garnered a lot of respect from his peers, and he seemed to be one of the more promising young artists.

With “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon,” Pop Smoke’s legacy is continued posthumously, with mostly poor results.

The album starts off with the absolutely disappointing 48 second long track “Bad Bitch from Tokyo.” It sounds like a decent introduction, with a slightly more melodic approach to it, then it suddenly ends. This track reeks of the problem that most posthumous albums have, and that’s the highly questionable choices in what a label chooses to include in a track list.

Fortunately this song is followed up by a decent banger, titled “Aim for the Moon,” featuring Quavo. I have a feeling Pop Smoke was a big fan of Quavo, because he’s featured two other times in this album, and has been a feature in the past. The production on this song is dark and simple, with an arpeggio for the backdrop and a wave-bending baseline. The drums are also syncopated, bringing to mind the UK drill influence that Pop Smoke has helped popularize in American rap.

This song is followed up by “For the Night,” featuring Lil Baby and Roddy Ricch. The instrumental is excellent, with a flute and guitar that has become very common in popular rap. It’s not the most unique sound, but it perfectly fits Lil Baby and Roddy Ricch. While it is easily one of the best songs on this album, it is an example of another problem with this album; the features are carrying many of the songs. Pop Smoke’s contribution to this track is totally forgettable when you have two artists whose style more properly matches the production.

The next two tracks that follow this are the first proper solo tracks. “44 BullDog” is a cold-blooded banger, and Pop Smoke’s gruff voice sounds perfect over the tense, mysterious instrumental. This is the soundtrack to a drive-by shooting. What comes next is “Gangsta,” which sounds like a 50 Cent track modernized for a new generation, with Dr. Dre-esque pianos and mid-tempo trap drums. Both tracks are great examples of what Pop Smoke can do on his own.

After these tracks, the album takes a dip in quality with “Yea Yea,” which has a strangely “early 2000’s R&B” sounding beat that clashes with Pop’s violent lyrics. “Snitching” is a mostly uninteresting track with another Quavo feature and a contribution from Future, in which he kind of sounds like he’s imitating Pop Smoke at points. The chorus is the only memorable part of this track, as the instrumental is bland and the verses are forgettable.

The album picks up with one of the best tracks, titled “Make It Rain,” featuring a phone-recorded verse from Rowdy Rebel. The instrumental is nothing too unique, but it really bangs, and Pop flows well over it. Rowdy Rebel’s verse actually works, and while its poor recording sounds quiet in the mix, he oozes confidence, and he sounds wonderful.

“The Woo” is one of the more popular tracks from this album, and features Roddy Ricch and 50 Cent, Pop Smoke’s most obvious influence. 50’s verse is equal parts bad and uninteresting, and reveals how mostly unskilled of a rapper he has been for years. I forget every verse on this song, but 50 Cent’s verse is memorably forgettable. Is that possible? Anyway, the instrumental is rather corny, with a syncopated Latin guitar line that is made to sound sexy, but overall the song is a dud.

The track is “West Coast Shit.” For some reason I really like this song. I think Pop Smoke sounds good on its west coast production, as his cadences are strangely enjoyable. When he says, “36 carats on my wrist/That mean there’s 36 carats on my bitch,” he says it in such an effortlessly charismatic way that it just works. Overall the song is not that great, but is definitely one of the better tracks.

The album really takes a dive headfirst into trash from here, with the most offensive slip being “Mood Swings” with Lil Tjay. In this song, Pop Smoke details a sexual encounter with a woman with too much information, and is downright embarrassing to listen to. The song is a horrible attempt at a babymaker, and should not exist.

The album does not rise past mediocrity until “Got It on Me,” which is without a doubt the best song on this album, with an interpolation of 50 Cent’s “Many Men,” wonderfully performed by Pop Smoke. This song is everything that the rest of this album should have been, when it is instead filled with poor attempts at chasing modern stylistic trends.

The track that follows is the outro, titled “Tunnel Vision.” While the song is short, the beat is nice, and contains an excellent drum pattern, akin to his hit song “Dior.” However it is much less aggressive and is more introspective instead.

This album has a few keepers in the track list, but is actually a major disappointment. I don’t quite know how different this album would be if Pop Smoke was alive to witness its completion, but this album simply isn’t a good example of what he had to offer musically. So much of it is mediocre, with a few moments being so lackluster that they are a bit insulting to both the listener and Pop Smoke’s legacy. I don’t want this to happen, but I know this album will fall off the charts and be forgotten soon enough.

Written By: Brandon Grant