{"id":975171,"date":"2020-02-19T08:09:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T15:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=954833"},"modified":"2020-02-19T08:09:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T15:09:01","slug":"rising-rapper-pop-smoke-shot-dead-in-l-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/music-news\/rising-rapper-pop-smoke-shot-dead-in-l-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising Rapper Pop Smoke Shot Dead in L.A."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pop Smoke<\/a>, the rising New York rapper whose gruff-voiced style made fans of stars like Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, was shot and killed in Los Angeles on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the LAPD confirmed the rapper\u2019s death to Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Los Angeles police responded to an emergency call at 4:20 a.m. this morning after masked gunmen broke into a house where the rapper was staying, the rep confirmed. Pop Smoke was transferred to a local hospital and pronounced dead when he arrived. He was 20. The rapper\u2019s death came just days after his new mixtape, Meet the Woo 2<\/i>, debuted in the Top Ten of the Rolling Stone <\/em>albums chart.<\/span><\/p>\n

As news of Pop Smoke\u2019s death spread quickly online Wednesday morning, rappers remembered him on Twitter. \u201cYou made the whole city proud,\u201d wrote Bas<\/a>, who is signed to J. Cole\u2019s Dreamville Records. \u201cSad man, just sad,\u201d added another New York rapper<\/a>, Joell Ortiz. \u201cRIP Pop Smoke.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pop Smoke was born Bashar Barakah Jackson in Brooklyn, New York in 1999. His transformation from a relatively unknown artist to next-up took place in the span of just a few months. Last April, he released a song titled \u201cWelcome to the Party\u201d that was sludgy and triumphant, hypnotic yet menacing. The production bore similarities to previous New York hits like Bobby Shmurda\u2019s \u201cHot Nigga,\u201d but Jackson had an inimitable voice \u2014 deep, gravelly, beat-swallowing.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a recent interview<\/a> with Rolling Stone<\/em>, Jackson remembered his earliest experiences making music. \u201cThe first time I wrote a song, I had to be like eight years old in church, some gospel shit,\u201d the rapper explained. \u201cI sang that shit in front of everybody, the whole congregation. Now look \u2014 I\u2019m a gangsta. That shit was fun. From that point on I knew I\u2019m finna do this my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n