Bashar Barakah Jackson (20 July 1999-19 February 2020), known professionally as Pop Smoke, was an American rapper, songwriter, and Crips gang member who was murdered in a Los Angeles home invasion in 2020.
Biography[]
Bashar Barakah Jackson was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York in 1999 to a Jamaican mother and a Panamanian father, and he was raised in Canarsie. He became a local drug dealer and served two years under house arrest on a weapons charge; he was affiliated with the Crips gang. In 2018, he began his music career by remixing drill music, and he went on to make his own original music. In April 2019, he released his breakout single "Welcome to the Party". He released his second mixtape in February 2020. On 19 February 2020, four burglars invaded Pop Smoke's home in Hollywood Hills, California, and one of them shot him in the chest during the home invasion.