Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon
by Pop Smoke
Metascore
70

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
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  1. Variety
    Jul 6, 2020
    84
    “Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon” holds weight, innovates and – pardon the pun – blows more fire than smoke.
  2. HipHopDX
    Jul 16, 2020
    82
    Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon offers a fleeting peek into the artist Pop would become—beyond Drill, beyond Brooklyn, beyond even the United States.
  3. Clash Music
    Jul 6, 2020
    80
    It is so easy to reach in blindly and pull out a well-produced track with a decent guest appearance and Smoke at his lyrical best. However, the album doesn’t stray too far from the genre, it isn’t by any means innovative.
  5. New Musical Express (NME)
    Jul 6, 2020
    80
    ‘Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon’ showcases a multi-faceted artist only just discovering his potential. What makes the album truly stand out is that it serves as a testament to the strength, power and knowledge Smoke held in his ambition to go to the very top.
  6. The Independent (UK)
    Jul 6, 2020
    80
    Brilliant and bittersweet, Shoot For the Stars Aim For the Moon is the work of someone whose success should have been stratospheric.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    Jul 6, 2020
    75
    With stakes this high and a legacy to consider, the end result may or may not bear much of a resemblance to what Pop Smoke had in mind. Nonetheless, he sounds alive here, a motivated and vibrant hip-hop talent actively pushing towards that next level.
  8. Paste Magazine
    Jul 8, 2020
    72
    It’s a shame there are not enough songs where Pop’s talent can shine on its own. Only six of 19 tracks feature Pop Smoke solo, not including the intro, outro and “Dior,” which is a bonus track that also appears on all of his previous tapes. ... However, there are still many highs.
  9. Rolling Stone
    Jul 6, 2020
    70
    Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon, Pop’s 19-track posthumous debut album, marks a dramatic expansion—and dilution—of his signature sound. 808 Melo, who produced about two-thirds of Pop’s music to date, is less of a defining presence here.
  10. Consequence
    Jul 14, 2020
    67
    Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon neither blights nor burnishes Pop Smoke’s legacy. It’s fine. Better to remember Smoke as the dark-horse MVP candidate for summer 2019.
  11. Pitchfork
    Jul 7, 2020
    65
    Buried under the fluff somewhere is a good album.
  12. Los Angeles Times
    Jul 6, 2020
    60
    “Shoot for the Stars,” an ambitious but scattered expansion of Pop’s sound, is widely expected to top the charts by a long shot next week. But it can’t do much more than fill in the cracks of what his life and career should have been.
  13. AllMusic
    Jul 13, 2020
    40
    Though the first two volumes of Meet the Woo lacked the bombast of Smoke's iconic singles, they demonstrated candor in their representation of the drill heavyweight; SFTSAFTM, by contrast, tarnishes the rapper's visionary style with predatory glitz as everyone jumps for a piece of the pie.
  14. Slant Magazine
    Jul 8, 2020
    40
    On the whole, in broadening his music’s scope, those responsible for piecing together Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon have lost sight of the local specificity, quirky charisma, and energy that made a name for Pop Smoke in the first place.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 51 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 51
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 51
  3. Negative: 8 out of 51
  1. ShovelReviews
    May 21, 2021
    3
    If a spreadsheet made by a music executive decided to release an album, this is what it would sound like.

    Throughout it's hour long    If a spreadsheet made by a music executive decided to release an album, this is what it would sound like.

    Throughout it's hour long runtime, the record is simultaneously unfocused and repetitive. Almost every song lacks any sort of innovative sampling, relying on a mass-produced trap beat instead. If Pop Smoke's lyrics were interesting enough to stand by themselves, this wouldn't be a problem. But unfortunately, the musical unoriginality is backed up by lyrical blandness. The only songs that can consistently carry a train of thoughts from one stanza to the next are the ones that talk about sex. On all the other songs, the lyrics start talking about sex too, although this time it's more because they don't know what else to talk about. Occasionally they'll discuss drugs or money, just to spice things up a bit. The large numbers of features don't bring in anything new either, as the one-shot , thrown into the song with no direction, rarely bridge back to anything else sung. The one bright spot is Pop Smoke's voice - gravelly, uber-confident, and *different* from the rest of the rap game. I wish everything else in the album had the same uniqueness.    … Full Review »
  2. clem666
    Dec 7, 2021
    6
    I was very surprised by the amount of material Pop Smoke left behind. 'Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon' obviously had however theI was very surprised by the amount of material Pop Smoke left behind. 'Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon' obviously had however the unavoidable need to be paved with many and many featurings. Some quite decent and appropriate, others totally irrelevant and money-directed. Some even dramatically overshadow Smoke's presence.

    Surprisingly, it feels much better to hear Pop Smoke explore other genres than his classic drill approach. Even if the producers couldn't help but push Smoke into its less original and more superficial tendencies in order to satisfy an audience that is content with mind-numbing repetition. Some (few) punchlines are highly interesting and depict a part of the artist we didn't know much about but the rest is just composed of simple and widely common rap themes. There is a notable imbalance between bangers and slow jams all along the album. I was appalled by the amount of love and mellow songs. It is sad to admit that only his voice will remain as the most outstanding element of Pop Smoke's success.    … Full Review »
  3. Jonathan0112
    Oct 27, 2020
    8
    First prompted to listen to this album after listen to “The Woo” while using Spotify playlists. Knowing Pop Smoke passed away is tragic and atFirst prompted to listen to this album after listen to “The Woo” while using Spotify playlists. Knowing Pop Smoke passed away is tragic and at the same time drive me to give it a listen after “the Woo”.
    The album has multiple highlights, notably The Woo, For the Night, What you know bout Love, the later is my favourite on it. To me, it has some kind of “fillers”? But over half of them are genuinely bops. King of New York RIP.    … Full Review »
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