BROOKLYN rapper/singer Pop Smoke, whose mother is Jamaican posthumously topped the Billboard 200 album charts this week. The rapper – who was killed in February – achieved the feat with his posthumous debut album Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon , released on July 3 via Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic Records.
The album is holding the pole position on on the Billboard 200, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Top Rap Albums, Top Current Albums Sales and Top Album Sales charts.
Pop Smoke’s mother is Jamaican and his father is Panamanian. He is the second rapper of Jamaican parentage to have topped the Billboard 200 albums chart posthumously.
Rapper Notorious B.I.G (aka Biggie Smalls) achieved this feat when Life After Death, released in 1997 just months after his death, topped the chart. He also went to number one with 1999’s Born Again and 2007’s Greatest Hits.
Biggie Small’s parents Voletta Wallace and Selwyn George Latore are Jamaican immigrants who raised their only child in Brooklyn.