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Pop Smoke’s Posthumous Debut Album Drops This June

Pop Smoke. Photo: Scott Dudelson/Getty Images

Music by the late rapper Pop Smoke will live on in a posthumous album coming out June 12. The Brooklyn artist’s label Victor Victor posted an album cover and release date on Instagram Thursday afternoon. No official title has been announced. This is the rapper’s first album after breakout mixtapes Meet the Woo and Meet the Woo 2, the latter of which came out less than a month before his murder. Pop Smoke was shot during a home invasion at a house he was renting in the Hollywood Hills on February 19. The 20-year-old died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, sending shock waves throughout the rap world. Pop Smoke was a forerunner of the Brooklyn drill movement, an emerging genre stemming from U.K. drill music. Pop Smoke’s song “Welcome to the Party” is one of the most prominent examples, earning remixes by Nicki Minaj, Drake, and others. Chance the Rapper, Nas, Quavo, Travis Scott, and more mourned the rapper after his unexpected death. Circumstances regarding the homicide are still unclear months later.

Earlier this month, his manager announced that he and Pop Smoke’s family had plans to release music posthumously. “Throughout the next year we will be sharing new music, as we continue to work to build Pop’s legacy,” the statement read. “In conjunction with his estate, we will be making formal announcements on his foundation and music projects.”

Pop Smoke’s Posthumous Debut Album Drops This June