BROOKLYN rapper/singer Pop Smoke – who was killed in February – has the number one album in America. His posthumous debut album Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon , released on July 3 via Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic Records, is number one 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.

50 Cent is credited as executive producer of Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon. The 19-track set features collaborations with rappers including Swae Lee, Lil Baby, DaBaby, Quavo, Future, Rowdy Rebel, Roddy Ricch, Lil Tjay, and King Combs.

All 19 tracks debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart while 16 debuted on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100. Eleven of the songs entered the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart, while 18 made the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon sold 251,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Of that sum, 190,000 were streaming equivalent album (SEA) units, 59,000 in album sales, and 3,000 were track equivalent album (TEA) units.

The album has also charted in several countries. It debuted at number one in Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland. It is number three in Belgium, France and Sweden, while holding down the number two spot in the United Kingdom.

Pop Smoke, given name Bashar Barakah Jackson, began his musical career in 2018. A year later he released the single Welcome to the Party. The same year, he inked a recording contract with Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records and released the mixtape Meet the Woo.

His second mixtape, Meet the Woo 2 (2020), debuted at seven on the Billboard 200.

Pop Smoke died on February 19, 2020 after being shot twice during a home invasion in Hollywood Hills, California. He was 20 years old. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the torso.

Five men were subsequently arrested in connection with his murder.