“He was starting to become that famous rapper that people recognize and people wanted to take pictures with, and he could kind of go around wherever he wanted. “When we got the call for him to go to Paris, it was super exciting because it was validation that he was on radar and worthy of that front-row seat and the celebrity and stuff that comes with it,” Pandya tells Complex. Pandya, who was by his side throughout the trip, recalls Pop being eager to fly out to Paris and be part of the festivities. On any given day, you could expect to see him in head-to-toe Dior, Rick Owens, Palm Angels tracksuits, or rocking distressed Amiri denim. He wasn’t just name-dropping designers like Mike Amiri or Christian Dior because it was the cool thing to do. Like his songs suggested, he was already being looked to for his personal style choices.
I want you to sit front row and feel like you belong here too because you were my inspiration.”Īttending Paris Fashion Week proved Pop Smoke’s influence was growing beyond Canarsie and Brooklyn drill music. It was literally the idea that I’m paying homage to them because I was listening to their music when I made these collections. “I got in touch with myself because I wanted them to come to Paris for the first time and not have to deal with the scrutiny, or that feeling of ‘you don't belong here’ that we did when we were there 10 years before. I was listening to Westside Gunn and listening to the whole Griselda back catalog at the end of 2019 when I was designing that collection for the Off-White show,” says Abloh. Still, this group loved fashion and felt they deserved to be there, so they showed up anyway. They could buy their products, but weren’t invited to sit at the shows. At the time, these brands didn’t welcome the rap world with open arms. Abloh considers it the antithesis to the infamous photo of himself, Kanye West, Don C, Taz Arnold, Fonzworth Bentley, and Chris Julian taken by Tommy Ton during Paris Fashion Week in 2009 outside of the Comme des Garçons Homme show. It was his way to use his platform to represent rappers the fashion world usually shunned despite their massive influence on the space. He personally invited him to sit front row at the Off-White and Louis Vuitton Men’s shows. We got to know each other because I DM’ed him like, ‘Yo, your music’s crazy,’ and we sort of built a rapport.”Ībloh would eventually become the rapper’s connector to Paris Fashion Week. “So I knew of him through the radio, which is pretty crazy. “He had the hottest song of the summer brewing, and it was constantly getting played,” Abloh tells Complex. Abloh recalls hearing “Welcome to the Party” for the first time on BBC Radio and being intrigued that someone from Brooklyn was rapping over a U.K. The track will forever link him to the designers he loved in the same way older hip-hop fans might equate Pharrell with Bape or Biggie with Coogi and Versace sunglasses.Īs his profile continued to rise, he also caught the attention of multi-hyphenate creator Abloh, who was eager to build with him. If it wasn’t already clear that Pop was intrigued with the fashion world, “Dior” made it obvious, with the deep-voiced rapper shouting about brands like Amiri and, of course, Dior over the chorus. In less than a year, Pop was able to create a stylistic image for himself that resonated with his fans and peers.
His breakout single, “Welcome to the Party,” was a summer anthem in 2019 that extended far beyond New York City and introduced the Brooklyn drill sound to the mainstream. In the months leading up to his first trip across the pond, Pop Smoke’s notoriety in the rap game had grown. He wanted to get out of the car and take pictures.”
#Woo logo pop smoke driver#
It's somewhere he always wanted to go, and it was his first trip,” says Shivam Pandya, the director of artist management at Victor Victor Worldwide, Pop Smoke’s label. “As soon as we had landed, when we got to the city, the first stop he had the driver make was to go to the Eiffel Tower. And it was supposed to be just the beginning before his tragic death this past February. It was another milestone in his rapid ascent to the forefront of the rap world. He didn’t have a passport.īut now Pop Smoke was thousands of miles away from Brooklyn, sitting front row at shows for brands like Louis Vuitton and Off-White among people he once idolized, like Virgil Abloh and Quavo. The 20-year-old Canarsie rapper, born Bashar Jackson, hadn’t traveled internationally, not even to Jamaica, where his mother is from, or Panama, where his father is from. Pop Smoke told Angie Martinez that before touching down in Paris back in January, he had never even left the country before.
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