Biography:
Bashar Barakah Jackson, who goes by the rapper name Pop Smoke, was born in Brooklyn, NY. Bashar started his music career in late 2018 but started composing music when he was only 16. He composed his first real song that blew the media away with “Welcome to the party” and “Dior” in 2019. Bashar started to gain his connection and collabs through other music artists that heard his music and reached out to him. The types of music he created was hiphop, drill and rap. He mostly created brooklyn drill and drill in general, UK artists started to collaborate with him and reached out to him.
Bashar was signed with Republic records, and Victor Victor Worldwide. Rico Beats was his major connection that introduced him to all the record labels and helped him get signed into the two record labels mentioned.
Early life:
Bashar was born on July 20th, 1999 with his mother Audrey Jackson, and his father Greg Jackson. Bashar attended 9 different schools growing up, he grew up in the rough streets of Brooklyn and grew up in the street life. He was expelled in grade 8 for possessing a firearm and was charged with illegal possession of a firearm, later on, Bashar took on the love for basketball and moved to Philadelphia for a basketball academy. Sadly, he was forced to move back to his home town and returned back to the street life due to his father being diagnosed with heart murmur.
Bashar dropped out of highschool and decided to do music as a career, he had a unique voice that many other rap artists don’t have, his raspy deep voice was one of the reasons people turned their attention to his music. Bashar simply learnt to produce and master all his composed music himself, with the help of his friends who also had the same interest in music. He used his gang life/street life emotions into music, expressing himself through his songs. He blew up mostly by accident, again, through his unique voice. Bashar didn’t have any connections through the music industry but mostly people reaching out to him, he posted his music through soundcloud, spotify, and youtube. From there, Bashar started his music career.
Career:
During a genius interview, Jackson stated that his artist name was a combination of poppa, the name given to him by his Panamanian grandmother. And smocco guwop was a nickname from his childhood friend.
His first attempt at rapping in 2018 was during a visit to Brooklyn recording studio with Jay Gwuaop rapping over a beat. Later, Jackson befriended producer Rico Beats who was acquainted with record executive Steven Victor.
In April 2019 Jackson was signed to Victor Victor worldwide and republic records. On April 23rd, 2019 Jackson released his first single “welcome to the party” That was produced by 808 melo and many other remixes of songs were later recorded too. Jackson later released his debut mixtape “Meet the Woo” on July 26,2019. From October to December 2019. Jackson released multiple singles including “War” with Lil Tjay and “100k on a calboy”
December 27th, 2019 Jackson appeared on Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack Records compilation album “Jackboys” on the song “Gatti” which also had a music video. Later Gatti made its debut on the Billboard hot 100 in 69 places. Giving Jackson his first billboard appearance.
Some of his other songs he released were “Christopher Walking”, his second mixtape “meet the woo 2” featuring Quavo and Boogie with da hoodie, Fivio Foreign and Lil Tjay. His second mixtape debuted 7th on the US billboard 200 earring Jackson’s his first top 10 hits in the US, five days later after its release.
Legacy:
Bashar made a huge impact in the music industry with the introduction of drill, drill has been out for awhile but didn’t blow away the industry more than what Bashar did. He made most of his money through concerts, music contracts, media links that played him and of course the illegal money through his gang life. Bashar was a crip member who was affiliated with the biggest gangs in the states.
One of the biggest impacts through the youth that he showed was his hard work for music, turning his emotions and uniqueness through music, well though many artists did the same, again, he blew the industry with the big introduction with drill. Though Bashars entrance in the music industry is a one time entrance but can somewhat be repeated.
Sadly Bashar, Pop Smoke, passed away from a home invasion back in February 19th, 2020. He was found dead in his home and was shot multiple times. Bashars death impacted the youth, he was an upcoming drill legend in Brooklyn, his music career only lasted for 3 years. His death was solved, from him being a part of gang affiliates, Bashar was killed by his own best friend who was jealous of his fame and money. Although he passed away, Bashar has many archive songs that are slowly being released from time to time. For now Bashar, Pop Smoke, is known as the legend of Brooklyn drill.
Bibliography:
https://www.hiphopscriptures.com/pop-smoke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Smoke
https://www.republicrecords.com/artists/pop-smoke
Music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oorVWW9ywG0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo5hepNudl0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usu0XY4QNB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9pjm4cNsfc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSdAWQziQ8I
