Pop Smoke’s posthumous debut album has earned another placement in Billboard history. Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon has become the longest-running No. 1 record on the Top Rap Albums chart after spending 20 weeks in the top position. With his latest accomplishment, the late emcee takes the title from Eminem’s Recovery, which held the No. 1 spot for 19 weeks in 2010-11.
In third place is Drake, whose Take Care album spent 16 weeks on top of the chart. Macklelemore and Ryan Lewis’ The Heist topped the list for 13 weeks, and Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN previously stayed atop the chart for 11 weeks.
Pop’s history-making achievement comes just days after his debut project made history, spending the most weeks on top of the Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart, and overtaking Michael Jackson’s Bad album and Prince’s Purple Rain.
Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon has spent a total of 33 weeks on the Billboard 200 and is slowly inching toward the most weeks in the chart’s top five position. Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Adele’s 21 currently hold the No. 1 and No. 2 spot.
Pop’s posthumous project came out in July and featured the likes of Quavo, Roddy Rich, King Combs, Lil Baby and DaBaby. The platinum-selling album sold 251,000 album-equivalent units during its first week; by the second week, all 19 tracks simultaneously appeared on the Billboard 100.
Though the Brooklyn emcee made his entry into hip hop with drill music, he surprised fans with the versatility of the songs on his debut project. He also planned to make his mark in Hollywood, landing a role in his first-ever movie, Eddie Huang’s Boogie.
Unfortunately, Pop was tragically killed in February 2020 during a home invasion. He was 20 years old at the time of his sudden demise.