Faith (Pop Smoke album)

The album's guest appearances includes from Kanye West, Pusha T, Rick Ross, The-Dream, 42 Dugg, 21 Savage, Rah Swish, Travi, Beam, The Neptunes, Bizzy Banks, Takeoff, Lil Tjay, Swae Lee, Future, Chris Brown, Dua Lipa, Pharrell, Kid Cudi, Quavo, and Kodak Black.

The deluxe edition adds additional appearances from G Herbo, OnPointLikeOP, Killa, Dread Woo, Tayy Floss, Fetty Luciano, Anuel AA, and Obasi Jackson.

[12][13] The producer posted a mirror selfie and added, "I see and hear everything kept it cool tho no worries pay back around the corner Pop smoke new album loading".

[12][13] After Rico Beats indicated the release of Pop Smoke's second album, 50 Cent told radio personality Kris Kaylin in an interview that he was unsure if he would be involved and executive produce it.

[20] In the song, West raps the intro[28] while it features a sample of Power 105.1 host Angie Martinez delivering an ode to Pop Smoke.

[29] Pop Smoke raps about his early life in Brooklyn, New York, and the struggles he faced at the time,[20][26] while Pusha T disses Canadian musician Drake[30] and hints on releasing an album soon.

[40] "Top Shotta" with The Neptunes, featuring Pusha T, Travi, and Beam is a dancehall-inspired drill[24] track that utilizes a tropical beat[41] and caribbean-style steel drums.

[20] Pop Smoke raps "Don't run in my crib, I'll put guns to your head" before a brief pause in the music to emphasize the line's profundity.

[18][48][49] "Demeanor" featuring Dua Lipa is a electropop[37] and disco-pop song[20][50] that uses a bassline,[51] rhythm guitar,[52] drums,[43] funky groove and bounce, woozy vibes, and rhythmic verses.

[19][22] Udit Mahalingan of The Line of Best Fit stated that "Back Door" featuring Quavo and Kodak Black is about a "piece of maternal advice into a meditation on the urban New York experience".

[39] Rolling Stone author Milan Kordestani opined that Pop Smoke is "clearly speaking to his target audience" during "Merci Beaucoup".

[69] The deluxe version of Faith closes with "Dior", a drill[70] and hip hop[71] song with lyrics about flirting with women and buying the latest designer clothes.

[45] The visual features stock and archival footage of Pop Smoke at the Mr. Jones nightclub in Miami, Florida,[85] while showing Future hanging out with a plethora of women.

[91] A music video for the song was released on Pop Smoke's YouTube channel on July 29, 2021,[92] and was directed by Australian-American director Nabil Elderkin.

[93][94] In the visual, Pop Smoke is a ghost and is seen on a medieval tableau that comes to life and depicts different versions of him,[93][95] as well as white doves flying around in the painting.

[93][96] Lipa wears a vintage corset-style lace-trimmed ballgown from Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring 1998 couture collection,[97][98][99] which was inspired by Marie Antoinette and the Age of Enlightenment,[97][98] as she does different activities and dances throughout the visual.

[104][105] The visual takes place in Pop Smoke's hometown of Canarsie, Brooklyn and was primarily filmed at a basketball court in the late rapper's neighborhood.

[24] Rolling Stone's Mosi Reeves wrote, "Faith consists of audio files recombined by producers and record executives into something coherent, listenable, and at times even enjoyable, but not quite dazzling.

[59] In a lukewarm review, Alavo said, "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".

[33] David Crone for AllMusic felt that Faith subdues Pop Smoke, believing he "is no longer the thunderous cloud descending on his anthems; rather, he feels almost entirely an afterthought".

Crone opined "with friends and collaborators surgically removed, Faith is littered with jarring voices, avaricious creative decisions, and a fundamental sidelining of its visionary figurehead".

[21] Writing for Pitchfork, Alphonse Pierre commented Faith is made up of "unfinished records, demos, and reference tracks that were sliced together and completed with features only selected to juice streaming numbers".

He claims that Pop Smoke's team "leeched" money from his legacy and that the "most offensively bad [tracks] on Faith are the ones that have no shame in hiding their financial intentions".

[18] Keith Nelson Jr. of Mic asserted that Pop Smoke sounds "like a guest on his own album", characterizing it was "made more from the thoughts of the living trying to keep the dead alive".

[111] In a more positive review, Billboard's Jason Lipshutz felt impressed with Faith, believing it was "made with the same type of thoughtfulness and precision" as Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon.

[112] Mahalingan praised the album, saying that "unlike the majority of [posthumous releases], 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".

[22] A.D. Amorosi, writing for Variety, mentions that "despite being fully Frankenstein-ed from volumes of verses the rapper left behind, [the album] never feels limp or stitched together".

[27] Writing for The Ringer, Micah Peters opined Faith is like "Travis Scott's fashionably oversized Dior shirt—clean and nicely framed, competently executed, expensive, a little ridiculous.

Alex Suskind remarked that the "late drill star deserved better than this cobbled together LP overstuffed with questionable features (Dua Lipa, anyone?)

[113] The staff of HipHopDX condemned the album, mentioning it has "recycled lyrics, forced guest spots and seemed to stray further from what endeared the King of Brooklyn drill to fans in the first place".