Pop Smoke
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Media personality Adam22 defended his recent interview with someone involved in the murder of Pop Smoke, leaving social media users angry.The controversial media personality Adam22 publicly defended his actions in recently interviewing one of the four men charged with the death of rising rapper Pop Smoke. “I didn’t do that interview because I don’t care,” the skateboarder-turned-podcast host expressed in a video. “That’s what a lot of people seem to think. ‘Adam just doesn’t give a f**k.’ That’s not the case at all. I did that interview because I thought it was an important historical record of somebody involved in one of the most tragic, insane stories in rap history.”
The interview on his No Jumper podcast was with Blockstar, who was 15 years old at the time of the Canarsie, Brooklyn rapper’s murder in Los Angeles, California in 2020. He received a four-year sentence in concordance with a plea deal struck with prosecutors. Blockstar sat down for the interview after his release from a juvenile detention facility and expressed his condolences to the family of Pop Smoke but no remorse for his actions. “I send my condolences to the family. I wish it never happened. But I don’t regret nothing,” he said. “Growing up, my people, my family told me, ‘You ain’t sorry for nothing. Whatever you did, you did it for a reason and stand on it.’”
In the video, Adam22 also referenced DJ Vlad, another figure whom many have similarly accused of behavior exploiting Black culture and Hip-Hop in his interviews. “I remember when Vlad took a lot of heat because he interviewed Keefe D… I thought it was pretty impressive that Vlad stood on his principles and did that interview. It was an important story,” he said. Adam22 would also state that someone else would’ve interviewed Blockstar if he hadn’t.
The explanation, however, only served to cause more outrage from observers on social media. Akademiks addressed the situation on a live stream and the damage it could lead to. “[H]ere in the media we have to take a little bit of accountability… I wonder if he knows the repercussions of what he’s doing…the n—a killed somebody in Hip Hop… then gets paid to tell the story on a Hip Hop platform… it’s a dangerous precedent.”
Check out the other reactions to Adam22’s video below.
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It’s been four years since up-and-coming rap star Pop Smoke was murdered during a home robbery in Hollywood Hills. And now one of the men involved in the killing will have his day in court this summer.
According to Vulture, a Los Angeles judge has just set a June 25 trial date for Corey Walker, who’s accused of taking part in the robbery that led to the shooting of Pop Smoke (born Bashar Barakah Jackson) on Feb. 19, 2020. Walker (who was 19 years old at the time) was the only suspect charged as an adult in the murder and has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder and three counts related to the home robbery.
Walker’s defense in the matter is that he wasn’t a part of the actual planning of the home robbery and was nothing more than the getaway driver who waited outside of the home while the entire scenario unfolded. Prosecutors, on the other hand, paint Walker as the mastermind in the case and have said as much in the charges they’re lobbing at the defendant.
Per Vulture:
Prosecutors argue that Walker “Facilitated the crimes by not only surveilling the crime scene before the crimes were committed but serving as the researcher, getaway driver, weapons provider and planner of this home invasion robbery.”
The trial date comes almost a year after three other minors involved in the killing settled their cases with one pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter, another confessing to killing the rapper, and the third settling his case at an “undisclosed time.”
What are your thoughts on the case? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Just when it seemed like Pop Smoke’s murder was an open and shut case, police are now investigating whether a dead body found in a barrel is connected to the killing of the Brooklyn rapper.
TMZ is reporting the body of Javonnta Murphy had washed ashore on a Malibu beach July 31 and being that he was the brother of Jaquan Murphy, one of the five men arrested for the murder of Pop Smoke, police are looking into the possibility that this could be related to that particular crime.
TMZ reports:
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Jaquan was first charged with attempted murder for Pop Smoke’s death, but later cleared. He is, however, currently awaiting trial for an unrelated murder in L.A. County.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s investigators are currently looking into the possibility Javonnta’s murder was a retaliation killing for Pop’s murder. Of course, it’s not their only theory, but definitely one they’re digging into.
TMZ broke the story … Pop was shot and killed in February 2020 during a robbery in the Hollywood Hills. Pop was not alone in the home, but he was the only one who was shot.
Following Pop Smoke’s death, his posthumous album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, went on to be the biggest rap album of 2020 going on to earn him a double-platinum plaque. Unfortunately, we’ll never know how big the rapper could’ve been as he was taken from us way too soon. Rest In Power, King.What do y’all think? Could the death of Javonnta Murphy be related to the murder of Pop Smoke? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Pop Smoke’s manager, Steven Victor, sat down and explained exactly what went on with the artists’ album cover designed by Virgil Abloh that caused a backlash.
The late rapper’s manager recently sat down for an interview on the latest episode of the Rap Radar podcast, which aired Friday (June 30). Victor, who also hails from Brooklyn, addressed the criticism directed at him over how he’s managed the affairs of Pop Smoke, with the album cover of Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, and his work with the late designer Virgil Abloh.
“That was bullshit,” Victor began when asked about the controversy beginning with the fan reception for Pop Smoke’s debut posthumous album release. “People sit back and think they know, but they don’t know s–t. They’re like, ‘oh, this is not what Pop would like.’ I’m like, ‘f–k you talkin’ about?’”
Months after Pop Smoke, aka Bashar Jackson’s murder in February 2020, Victor showed off the album cover artwork from Abloh on his Instagram page. Comments piled up, with many calling the artwork from the Louis Vuitton designer “lazy” among other scathing descriptions.
He continued: “When we did the video for ‘Shake the Room,’ like that whole concept and idea was Virgil’s idea, and when we were going through the process, like at first, Pop was like—’cause, y’know, he’d never had a video like that—he was like, ‘I don’t know,’ but he trusted Virgil’s vision, so it would’ve been the same thing.”
The backlash – which included a fan petition – compelled Victor and the label to replace the cover art, and Abloh would later delete the image from his own social media accounts. Conceptual artist Ryder Riggs was then commissioned to create a new album cover. It would eventually be a chrome rose against a pitch-black background.
“I was brought on to do design and creative direction for this project, and I was experimenting with flowers in 3D at the time,” Riggs said in a Complex interview after the cover’s debut. “While I was experimenting, I realized, ‘Oh my God, this is so perfect.’ People use flowers to memorialize people, and by fixing it in metal, it’s taking something that’s fleeting and making it permanent.”
Check out the entire interview below.
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It’s been three years since the shocking murder of beloved Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke, and now one of the four men arrested for his murder has pleaded guilty to robbing and killing “The Woo” artist.
The Associated Press is reporting that the assailant, whose name is being withheld because he was a minor at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter this past Thursday (April 6) for killing Pop Smoke during a botched robbery at a Hollywood Hills mansion in February of 2020.
The 20-year-old man, who was 17 when the killing occurred, also pleaded guilty in Inglewood juvenile court to home invasion robbery. He was sentenced to four years and two months in a juvenile facility.
Unfortunately the men knew exactly where to find Pop Smoke as earlier in the day Pop took to social media to post a picture of a gift bag he was given which contained the address where it was delivered. Once the men were privy to where Pop Smoke was staying, the made the trip out to the mansion and broke into the house looking to relieve Pop Smoke of the jewelry he was known to flaunt. Not one to play the victim, Pop Smoke fought back against his attackers, but ultimately ended up paying with his life.
The teenager, whose name also is being withheld, was charged in the case along with Corey Walker, who was 19 at the time, and Keandre Rodgers, who was then 18. They are accused of murder during the commission of a robbery and burglary.
Such a sad end to a bright life and promising career.
Months after his death, Pop Smoke’s album Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon was released and went on to be certified double-platinum as it spent 34 weeks in the top five of Billboard’s Top 200. It was only the fourth album in the 21st century to spend as many weeks in the top five.
Rest In Power, Pop.
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Months after a Notorious B.I.G. mural was defaced in Brooklyn (damn player haters), a mural dedicated to the memory of Pop Smoke has suffered the same fate in his hometown of Brooklyn as well.
The mural which is located in Pop Smoke’s old stomping grounds of Canarsie, Brooklyn, was found violated as someone wrote “Woo K” next to the original piece. Though it’s not known why someone would write that next to the mural, some feel that “Woo K” may mean “Woo Killer” which at this point is open to interpretation as to whether it’s a sign of respect or disrespect.
As of right now, no one’s claimed credit for the tagging of the mural (probably not the best idea to do to be honest), but fans of the late rapper aren’t impressed with the sentiment as the man who posted the pic wrote “Word to my dead yall niccas are mad childish like wtf.”
The mural originally went up back in July 2020 courtesy of Hattas Public Murals who threw it up five months after the murder of “The Woo” rapper in LA.
What do y’all think of the defacement of the Pop Smoke mural? Someone showing love or simply hating? Let us know in the comments section below.
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