Faith speaks to Pop Smoke’s perpetuity in hip-hop’s current context, serving as less of a lament of what could have been and more as a memorial for what was and still is.
Constructed with love, care, and attention, ‘Faith’ is a well-intended salute that contains some fantastic music.
While fans might never know if Pop would have approved of his music being used in this fashion, Faith is a reminder no amount of technological marvel or wizardry can reconstruct the magic an artist puts into their music while alive and a cautionary tale proving why the dead should be allowed to rest.
Despite poor production choices and lazy song structures, Pop Smoke's energy and solo spurts of brilliance won't allow for this stale posthumous release to tarnish his legacy.
At times, Faith is a clear-cut cash grab, but even when it isn’t, the lack of ambition and tendency to fill the album with pop rap that we’ve all heard some iteration of is painfully clear.
The Canarsie don's raw talent is overshadowed by superfluous guest spots on the second album to be released since his tragic death in 2020.
As far as posthumous projects go, Faith isn't a total insult to Pop Smoke's memory, but it is quite a step down from Shoot for the Stars.
Unfortunately, the rapper's second posthumous release is all pop, no smoke. With friends and collaborators surgically removed, Faith is littered with jarring voices, avaricious creative decisions, and a fundamental sidelining of its visionary figurehead.
This album feels more like a Pop Smoke charity event than it does an actual Pop Smoke album.
Not one feature here feels genuine, and it just comes off as these artists going "Wowee look at me, I'm on the new Pop Smoke album! Rest in peace, yo!" through their whole feature. They're not all bad features, but it's just something I can't get past. I really don't see a universe where people like Kanye West, Pusha T, Future, Pharrell, Swae Lee, Chris Brown and Dua Lipa of all people would ... read more
The first posthumous album is cute, the second one is less cute. Especially with 20 tracks, most of which sound really unfinished. I mean I was looking for some more pop smoke music, but this is a bit much. Might not finish it
This just doesn't sound like a pop smoke album would be, weird features and sounds really unfinished to be honest.
1 | Good News 0:46 | 36 |
2 | More Time 2:00 | 61 |
3 | Tell The Vision 3:35 feat. Kanye West, Pusha T | 59 |
4 | Manslaughter 4:09 | 64 |
5 | Bout A Million 3:23 | 64 |
6 | Brush Em 2:30 feat. Rah Swish | 69 |
7 | Top Shotta 4:19 | 37 |
8 | 30 3:48 feat. Bizzy Banks | 60 |
9 | Beat The Speaker 1:46 | 49 |
10 | Coupe 2:03 | 56 |
11 | What's Crackin 2:57 feat. Takeoff | 52 |
12 | Genius 3:28 | 52 |
13 | Mr. Jones 3:34 feat. Future | 49 |
14 | Woo Baby Interlude 0:28 | 33 |
15 | Woo Baby 2:36 feat. Chris Brown | 44 |
16 | Demeanor 3:04 feat. Dua Lipa | 58 |
17 | Spoiled 1:44 feat. Pharrell Williams | 46 |
18 | 8-Ball 2:56 feat. Kid Cudi | 46 |
19 | Back Door 4:03 feat. Quavo, Kodak Black | 49 |
20 | Merci Beaucoup 2:55 | 54 |