A Supposed Pop Smoke Mural That Looks Nothing Like The Rapper Sparked Online Ridicule And Outrage

Pop Smoke was shot to death inside of his Hollywood Hills home in February 2020. The New York-born rapper (real name Bashar Barakah Jackson) tragically lost his life at just 20 years old. Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that one man connected to Pop Smoke’s murder pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

There have been efforts to preserve his memory, including posthumous releases and the debut of a mural in his Brooklyn neighborhood months after his death.

Today, April 17, an mural, supposedly of the rapper is making the rounds online — and it looks nothing like Pop Smoke:

It’s unclear where the mural is located (it appears to be inside of a store), and it hasn’t been totally confirmed that the mural is intended to reflect Pop Smoke, but it does (somewhat) bear a resemblance to a photo of the late rapper.

The reactions are predictably negative. Commenters flooded No Jumper’s post claiming that the painted figure looks more like Babyface Ray, Fivio Foreign, or Lil Durk.

“They put the Snapchat baby face filter on him smh…,” a tweeter going by Dan I wrote, while Everyrealm compared it to the infamous Ronaldo sculpture from 2017.

While the mural is objectively sore, it was much more egregious when Aubrey Jackson, Pop Smoke’s mother, shared in September 2021 that his gravesite had been vandalized.