Blueface tells artists to connect with the “right natives” in LA following Pop Smoke’s death

LA rapper Blueface offered advice to artists visiting his home city following the sad news that Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke was shot dead in a Hollywood Hills home. 

20 year old Brooklyn drill exponent Pop Smoke was killed when four men stormed his house in the Hollywood Hills. The incident prompted Blueface – who grew up in LA’s Mid-City neighbourhood and whose artist name reflects his ties to the Crips street gang – to post a number of messages on his Instagram stories.

“People think Cali/LA is beautiful sunny palm trees,” he wrote. “Nyggas die here every single day I recommend any artist coming this way get in touch wit the right natives just to keep you up to speed.”

Listen: Pop Smoke – Welcome to the Party (Skepta remix)

Pop Smoke was born and raised in Brooklyn’s Canarsie neighbourhood and his music aligned with the New York drill movement. More recently, however, he was apparently based in Los Angeles. “Soon as you relax an think it’s cool this way that’s when they strike,” said Blueface.

The 23-year-old Blueface’s next post made it clear exactly what he was referring to. “Rip pop smoke,” he wrote. He finished with one more post clarifying that he wanted to avoid seeing this sort of thing happen again. “Just giving the next artist some game tired of watching kings get killed by pawns.”

Pop Smoke released the Meet the Woo Vol. 2 mixtape in early February. Quavo, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Charlie Sloth and Lil Tjay all feature on the tape, which debuted at number seven in the US charts. He also appeared on 2019’s JackBoys compilation album, put together by Cactus Jack Records and Travis Scott. He’s on the song ‘GATTI’ with Scott.

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