The Brooklyn drill rapper Pop Smoke's career was just getting started when he was shot dead in a Los Angeles home-invasion robbery in 2020. When Pop died, he was just 20 years old. In 2025, one of his attackers was sentenced to 29 years in prison. Since Pop's passing, his estate has released two posthumous albums, the first of which went double platinum. Now, Pop Smoke's brother is using his name to start a coffee shop, and he needs some experienced baristas.
Pop Smoke's brother Obasi Jackson recently announced plans to open a coffee shop called Pop's Place in Canarsie, the Brooklyn neighborhood where the family grew up. That's a nice idea, even if it's truly weird to see the late rapper's face in a baristas-wanted Instagram post. Thus far, we don't have too many concrete details about Pop's Place, but I guess we'll get all those details after Jackson hires some baristas.
Jackson is also doing a pop-up Pop Smoke merch thing in Brooklyn on Tuesday: "We chose Tuesday with intention. Pop was born on a Tuesday, so every time we come together like this, it means something. This is not just a pop up. This is how we keep his name alive."
