Variety’s Hitbreaker of the Year, Steven Victor, on Pop Smoke’s Bittersweet Success
Jordan Rose “I wanted to make Pop Smoke a superstar,” record executive and artist manager Steven Victor says wistfully.He succeeded — the young rapper has two songs on Variety’s Hitmakers 2021 list, “What You Know Bout Love” and “For the Night” — but tragically Pop Smoke, born Bashar Jackson, was fatally shot in a rented home in the Hollywood Hills in February 2020 at the age of 20, just as he was achieving that superstardom.Victor, who grew up two blocks from Pop in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Canarsie (although 20 years earlier), signed the deep-voiced rapper to his Universal-distributed Victor Victor Worldwide label. Before long, Pop’s first major song, “Welcome to the Party,” would be making waves across the globe.