Posthumous debut studio album of Pop Smoke, released less than five months after his death. Like most posthumous albums, it's clearly incomplete and 50 Cent entrusts himself with the task of finishing it. The production is made by 32 different beatmakers, on average there are two and a half per track. Guests are Quavo, Lil Baby, DaBaby, Swae Lee, Future, Rowdy Rebel, 50 Cent, Roddy Ricch, Tyga, Karol G, Lil Tjay and King Combs. This is followed by a deluxe edition, released three weeks after the record, on the day Pop Smoke would have turned 21, which is practically another LP of over forty minutes: fifteen tracks with thirty beatmakers and numerous guests, such as Fivio Foreign, Dafi Woo, Dread Woo, Davido, PnB Rock, Jamie Foxx, Gunna, Young Thug, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Queen Naija, King Combs, Calboy and Burna Boy.
The record obtains certifications in three continents, reaches the top of the charts in a dozen countries, and is one of the best sellers of the year, also doing very well in Europe. It reaches the top of the Billboard 200 and remains at the top of hip-hop records for 20 non-consecutive weeks. The LP is praised by critics, who never tire of applauding the effort to the point of skinning their hands, and whose only contrarian voice is "Slant Magazine". Despite all the nice words spent by the insiders towards this work, the album can do nothing but disappoint the fans: it's sold as a mix of drill, trap and rnb, but 50 Cent decides to almost completely distort the original sound of Pop Smoke, he decides to make the drill soul of the original project almost completely disappear and to supplant it with mainstream trap songs, rnb ballads and a series of guest appearances worthy of an in-depth investigation.
The guests aren't all necessarily evil or un-deserving to be in here, but they come with autopilot performance, without adding anything to songs that feel more incomplete with every minute that passes, in a project that, track after track, seems to have been built almost from scratch more than completed with some adjustments. The contribution of the rappers seems to be performed poorly on purpose to bring out Pop Smoke, which, in any case, would be even better than all of them even without these unworthy performances.
Among the best moments are definitely the solo cuts, including "Gangstas", which has a better production than everything else, while, in the deluxe version stand out "Hotel Lobby", with a bright, splendid melancholy trap rhythm, and "Backseat", while the rest is generic trap production with average rap. Consisting of 18 songs + the "Dior" bonus (already included in "Meet the Woo" and "Meet the Woo, Vol. 2") and 57 minutes of listening, which extends to 34 cuts and 102 minutes in the deluxe edition, it's a decent pop rap album, with melodic and accessible mainstream trap beats, a braggadocio-thug lyricism and a good flow from Pop Smoke. It might be an interesting listen for mainstream pop rap / trap fans, not recommended for Pop Smoke fans.
Rating: 4/10.
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