Pop Smoke’s Family Remembers the Fallen MC on One-Year Anniversary of His Death

Pop Smoke’s mother and brother recently spoke about his legacy, an anti-gun violence initiative inspired by him, and more.

Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the tragic death of Bashar “Pop Smoke” Jackson. The 20-year-old Brooklyn MC was just two weeks removed from the release of his second mixtape, Meet the Woo 2. On Friday, Pop Smoke’s mother Audrey Jackson and older brother Obasi both spoke out about his legacy, their healing process, and how they plan to honor him. Stream the interviews below.

“It’s definitely better than when it first started,” Obasi told Inside Edition. “There’s days when it’s like, really overwhelming for me. It feels almost like it was yesterday that I lost my brother. It doesn’t even feel like a whole year. It’s crazy to even imagine the fact that a whole year has passed and that he’s not here. And then I’m going to have to continue doing that for the remainder of my life, but we’re here and my family’s strong and we’re getting better.”

In an interview on The Breakfast Club with New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams, Audrey Jackson spoke on how it feels to see the impact her son was able to make in such a short time.

“These moments, they’re bittersweet,” she said. “Here at the Breakfast Club, you guys, he would listen to you all every day. He sat in the kitchen at the table, played you all. This should have been his moment. Everything I’m doing to promote and expand his legacy, it looks from the outside looking in [like] ‘She’s on stage!’ But every moment of that is faithful because there’s a way that, in planning it, there’s a secret place inside of me that says at the end of the day, when this event happens, he’s gonna be there.”

Jackson plans to keep working with Pop’s Shoot for the Stars Foundation by helping young people gain access to technology.

In March, Pop Smoke will make his film debut in Boogie, a basketball drama directed by Eddie Huang.