Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon
by Pop Smoke
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
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  1. 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 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    I 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.    … Expand
  2. JlakeDRACO
    Aug 21, 2020
    7
    This album starts out with a thunderous, aggressive intro track reminiscent of his first project Meet the Woo. This follows through tracks 1-5 which consist of aggressive tracks again reminiscent of Meet the Woo." The sonic direction of the album starts to sway towards the tone of his second project Meet the Woo 2, where he experimented with more pop, RnB style tracks about sex, and layingThis album starts out with a thunderous, aggressive intro track reminiscent of his first project Meet the Woo. This follows through tracks 1-5 which consist of aggressive tracks again reminiscent of Meet the Woo." The sonic direction of the album starts to sway towards the tone of his second project Meet the Woo 2, where he experimented with more pop, RnB style tracks about sex, and laying pipe. This a tone he adopts in tracks 6-17, with some bangers mixed in as well, just like we see in Meet the Woo 2. The album closes with Tunnel Vision (outro). Which is a song I feel is a perfect track to represent the London drill style rap which he helped popularize so much. I feel this collection of tracks is a good send-off to the rapper, letting his music live on through these tracks. However the track list does contain a few duds. Especially in the latter half of the album. The songs heavy about love tend to fall flat. But overall this is a good album with a lot of great tracks to sink your teeth into. Some of my favorites being Bad **** from Tokyo, For the Night, Gangstas, The Woo, Mood Swings, and Tunnel Vision.… Expand
  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 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    First 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.    … Expand
  4. 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 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    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.    … Expand
  5. frasalv
    Jan 23, 2021
    10
    great album .....
    you cannot say Pop and forget the Smoke.
    rest easy legend
  6. thenapster005
    Jul 31, 2020
    5
    Average album. Not great, but not terrible......................................
  7. michaelmendz
    Aug 28, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Es un álbum demasiado largo, te aburres a mitad del disco y no lo puedes disfrutar… Expand
  8. Alexxcarpio131
    Aug 28, 2020
    0
    Es un álbum tan aburrido, es demasiado largo
  9. AtomicRC365
    Sep 2, 2020
    8
    Listen to album for first time is great and hold to pop smoke legacy always listen closely and you can tell he here
  10. chickensusu
    Feb 24, 2021
    1
    i really dont like pop smokes music 1/10
    i really dont like pop smokes music 1/10
    i really dont like pop smokes music 1/10
  11. aIexis
    Feb 7, 2023
    10
    El mejor album de pop smoke por mucho, sonido experimental y una clara prueba de versatilidad. No se olvida el drill en canciones como Showin Off Pt 1 y Pt 2

    Me gustó la referencia de Tunnel Vision, haciendo referencia a los ultimos momentos de pop smoke vivo y la mentalidad que tenia para lograr sus objetivos y metas Canciones como Something Special y Imperfections hacen al album una    El mejor album de pop smoke por mucho, sonido experimental y una clara prueba de versatilidad. No se olvida el drill en canciones como Showin Off Pt 1 y Pt 2

    Me gustó la referencia de Tunnel Vision, haciendo referencia a los ultimos momentos de pop smoke vivo y la mentalidad que tenia para lograr sus objetivos y metas

    Canciones como Something Special y Imperfections hacen al album una muy buena prueba de que Bashar tenia una voz potencial melodica.

    Gracias Pop Smoke, descansa en paz.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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
  1. 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.
    Read full review
  2. 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.
    Read full review
  3. 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.
    Read full review
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