Controversy Behind Faith

7.20.21

Faith Pop Smoke Released 7.16.21

This past Friday, Pop Smoke’s second posthumous album, Faith, was released by record labels. While the music itself was dope, there comes a fine line between what is keeping the artist alive, and what is being used to profit off of whom is no longer with us. While the album is on pace to debut at number one, many are unhappy with the production and final outcome of the album.

Pop Smoke’s album Faith is on pace to sell 110,000-120,000 US units in total, with about 4,000-6,000 being album purchases. According to many charts, Faith is the only album expecting to reach six figures, so Pop should be taking home another number one album. Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon also reached number one of the Billboard 200 Album Charts, so if all goes accordingly, Pop Smoke will have his second #1 album.

The project is twenty songs long, with over half of the tracks including features from some extremely popular names. What is interesting about all of this, is Pop Smoke was not getting all these features prior to his passing, and perhaps, he did not want to. Since the album release, fans have uncovered multiple interviews where Pop Smoke had alluded to the fact that he did not want to collaborate with too many people. When he dropped Meet the Woo, there were no features, because he felt like it was the hottest out at the time. In another interview, he mentioned not being able to trust many, so he was not going to collaborate with them.

Artists featured on the album include Kanye West, Pusha T, Rick Ross, The Dream, 21 Savage, 42 Dugg, Rah Swish, The Neptunes, Travi, Beam, Bizzy Banks, Lil TJay, Swae Lee, Takeoff, Future, Chris Brown, Dua Lipa, Pharrell Williams, Kid Cudi, Quavo and Kodak Black. Pop Smoke had previously mentioned Pusha T being one of his influences, so I do like seeing him on the project. I think the 21 Savage and 42 Dugg feature make a lot of sense because of where they are all currently at in the game. Dua Lipa is a bit weird to me. Yeah she collaborated with DaBaby on a massive hit, but I do not think this track exists of Pop was still here moving how he chooses.

There are a lot of big names on the tracklist, but the question is always, what was finished work, and what was written specifically to get another album off under Pop’s name. While doing some digging, it appears that most of this new album were newly produced tracks and verses that were laid on top of what Pop had previously done, alone. Whether or not he would have approved these happenings, we unfortunately will never know for sure.

One of the most controversial tracks comes from Top Shotta, featuring Pusha T, Travi and Beam, and produced by The Neptunes. The issue on this track is not necessarily who is on it, but rather, who is not. Apparently, another New York artist, Eli Fross, was on the original version of the song, but had been taken off before the official release. Rowdy Rebel, another friend from the city shared his disapproval on social media, which caught the attention of many, including Drake.

Clearly, Eli Fross was a friend of Pop Smoke. Perhaps since his name is a not as big as the others on the tape, they decided it was best to remove him from the scene. Unfortunately, Eli Fross was just arrested for attempted murder, just a day or two after the album release.

Posthumous music is so complicated. It is a good project, and we want to continue to listen to Pop Smoke. However, whose to say he would have ever done any of this, or wanted it, if he were still here.

RIP to the Woo.