Pop Smoke – “Make It Rain” (Feat. Rowdy Rebel)

Pop Smoke – “Make It Rain” (Feat. Rowdy Rebel)

Back in February, the 20-year-old Brooklyn drill phenom Pop Smoke was murdered in Los Angeles. A few days before his death, I wrote that Pop could be New York’s next great rap hope. Even after his death, it’s happening. Pop Smoke’s music is still growing in popularity; the writer Alphonse Pierre just published a cool Pitchfork piece about how Pop’s song “Dior” has become an anthem at the protests against police brutality in New York. Today, we get the first posthumous Pop Smoke song.

We were supposed to get a whole album today. Not long ago, we got the announcement that a posthumous Pop Smoke album would be released today; that as-yet-untitled LP has since been pushed back until July. Today, we do get “Make It Rain,” a monstrous drill track that does not feel like a half-finished leftover. “Make It Rain” sounds like a banger, and it’s a real bittersweet pleasure to hear Pop’s tremendous gruff voice-of-God flow once again.

There’s another rapper on “Make It Rain,” too: Rowdy Rebel, first-generation Brooklyn drill rapper and member of Bobby Shmurda’s GS9 crew. Like Bobby, Rowdy Rebel has been in prison since 2014, when New York police rounded the whole group up and hit them with a ton of gang-related charges. Rowdy, who is reportedly up for parole later this year, comes in with a brisk, charismatic verse over a prison phone line, coming in hard. It’s good to hear him again. Check out the song below.

The posthumous Pop Smoke album is reportedly now due 7/3.

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