Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon
In April 2019, Pop Smoke was introduced to record executive Steven Victor by record producer Rico Beats. Pop Smoke told Victor after signing to Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records that he had previously sung for church services. In addition to rapping, he had experience as a singer. Pop Smoke performed an unreleased song called "Something Special" and a track called "What You Know Bout Love" for Victor. The latter song made a lasting impression on the Victor Victor executives, convincing them that Pop Smoke was more than "just another drill rapper from Brooklyn." Because Victor worked closely with rapper Kanye West as the chief operating officer of his record label GOOD Music at the time, Victor knew that many of rap's most popular musicians had been successful in introducing new sounds into the public. Pop Smoke would go on to make a series of mixtapes focused solely to Brooklyn drill. Pop Smoke would release his first album that showed his melodic side with bigger, more mainstream songs like "Something Special" after establishing himself as the "leader" of the subgenre that was growing in New York City.