Bad news for any fans wanting more Pop Smoke releases: they aren’t coming. In fact, it appears that any remaining work by the late Pop Smoke simply does not exist, according to a close friend of his.
In a recent interview with RAPTV host Kalisha Perera, Mike “Mike Dee” Durodola, close confidant and friend of Pop Smoke, gave details on Pop’s music vault, linking it to his posthumous album Faith:
“[In] my opinion, instead of dropping all 30 songs, I would have waited … until now, until next year, you know,” he said. “That way, his name will stay alive, instead of just dropping it all at one time, you know.”
And while a great deal of Pop Smoke’s unreleased material was used on this album, is it possible that some remains? According to Mike Dee:
“I’m guessing this is what he had left in the vault. Yeah…”
Too much Faith?
The success of Smoke’s posthumous July release Faith is undeniable. Rocketing to the number one position on the Billboard charts, it featured the likes of Kanye West, Cudi, and Pharrell, to name just a few. Riding on the success of it, record label Victor Victor Worldwide released a deluxe edition soon after. Adding ten more songs brought the tracklist to a massive thirty songs. Fans thought they had cause to celebrate. Faith had turned into an odyssey of hits and new material.
However, as Mike Dee says, this has bled the vault dry. Coupled with this is the criticism leveled at Victor Victor Worldwide for the handling of the material. All in all, it appears that the vault on original Pop Smoke material is all but spent.
Pop Smoke: surviving in features
If there is any silver lining in all this, we can find it in features.
In February, Meek Mill previewed collaborative material with Pop Smoke, keeping release details sparse. In October 2020, French Montana reportedly had enough work with Pop Smoke to release a proper album.
