All our actors, the extras, the kids on the bridge watching us shoot scenes, everyone was doing the Woo dance. Kids were coming on the bridge to watch us shoot the scenes. They were tough 16-hour days, overnights, and he shot five overnights in a row. A lot of actors just don’t have the depth of emotion and experiences, but because of what Pop’s gone through, he has a tremendous well to draw from. Within two takes, you could see the swag just come out of nowhere. You can tell he’s weathered, he’s an old soul. He filmed his first movie role, as the basketball-playing antagonist Monk, in the chef and author Eddie Huang’s directorial debut, “Boogie.”ĮDDIE HUANG (director and screenwriter, “Boogie”) Pop shows up to the audition - Palm Angels head to toe - and he’s just a kid, but he has the voice of 50 Cent and Paul Mooney. The speed with which hip-hop superstars like Travis Scott and Nicki Minaj were gravitating toward him for collaborations portended great things, suggesting that the king of New York might someday become the king of everywhere else, too.įollowing a blistering summer in which “Welcome to the Party” became ubiquitous, Pop Smoke’s small club performances were rapidly expanding to larger venues. The songs were menacing but surprisingly fleet, a crucial balance that satisfies both ground-level fans and those peering in from outside. In short order, he strung together a wild run of breakout singles (“Welcome to the Party,” “Dior,” “Gatti,” “Christopher Walking”) that accelerated him toward hip-hop’s upper tier. In Pop Smoke, it found its most intuitive voice, someone who reveled in bad-guy bluster while using it merely as a first step toward something much more ambitious.

For the last couple of years, Brooklyn has been fertile turf, growing a scene - drill - with a sound that’s rowdy, muscular and sinister. So it was with Pop Smoke, the Canarsie growler who was the most impressive rap newcomer of 2019. Every so often, though far less frequently than it used to, New York hip-hop mints an ambassador, someone who’s faithful to the grit of the city’s musical legacy while possessing the charisma to transcend it.

The album about nothing download reddit