The speakers just lit up on Hoodz Radio with a record that carries a whole moment inside it: Pop Smoke Make It Rain, featuring Rowdy Rebel. Heavy drill drums, that unmistakable baritone, and a second voice reaching us from behind prison walls. Turn it up, and let’s talk about what this record is.

The Story Behind Pop Smoke Make It Rain

“Make It Rain” by Pop Smoke featuring Rowdy Rebel arrived on Friday, June 12, 2020. It was the first new Pop Smoke music after his death, and the first posthumous lead single of his catalog. It landed on what would have been the album’s original release date.

Pop Smoke was shot and killed in Los Angeles in February 2020 at age 20. No arrests had been made when this single dropped. That is the weight sitting under every bar of the record.

A Delayed Album, an Immediate Single

Pop Smoke’s manager, Steven Victor, is the head of Victor Victor Worldwide, the label Pop Smoke was signed to. On Wednesday, June 10, 2020, Victor said the posthumous debut album would not drop that week, and he teased new music.

The album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, was moved to July 3, 2020. Victor’s stated reason was respect for the protests against racial inequality and police brutality. In his Instagram caption announcing the delay, he wrote, “Music is the tool of revolution.”

Here is the station’s take: pulling the album back while putting a single out says something. The full project waited for its moment, but the music still had a message to carry in the meantime.

The Mystery Feature

Victor’s cover art teased a mystery feature, and the fans went to work. Guesses included 50 Cent, Roddy Ricch, Fivio Foreign and Rowdy Rebel. Rowdy Rebel was the right guess.

Who Made Make It Rain: Producers, Writers and Label

The producers are Yamaica, Rico Beats and 808Melo. The three writers on the song are Pop Smoke, Rowdy Rebel and Yamaica, whose legal names are Bashar Jackson, Chad Marshall and Alyamani Ouadah.

It’s a drill track with Pop in his signature baritone flow. Rowdy Rebel handles the chorus and has his own verse. The record runs 3:24. The art is credited to Victor Victor Worldwide, Republic Records and UMG Recordings, and the master carries a 2020 Republic Records, a division of UMG, copyright line.

Rowdy Rebel’s Verse From the Prison Line

The feature is a phoned-in one. Rowdy Rebel delivered his verse over a prison phone line, and you can hear the story in the way the record is built around that call.

Rowdy Rebel is a first-generation Brooklyn drill rapper and a member of Bobby Shmurda’s GS9 crew. He had been in prison since 2014, when New York police rounded up the group on gang-related charges.

That matters for the culture. Brooklyn drill has a lineage, and this record connects it. A first-generation voice from that Brooklyn sound lands on a record by one of the artists who carried the drill sound to the world. Every Brooklyn head heard that handoff.

The Video

A music video was released alongside the song on June 12, 2020. It’s a 3-D style visual that runs about three minutes. The official video is on YouTube, titled “Make It Rain – (Official Video) by Pop Smoke ft. Rowdy Rebel.”

How Make It Rain Landed on the Charts

The week the album’s 19 songs charted, “Make It Rain” re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at a new peak of No. 49. All 19 songs from Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon hit the Hot 100, and the album itself was a historic posthumous No. 1 debut.

The momentum was already there. In May 2020, Pop Smoke earned an RIAA Platinum certification for “Dior” and a Gold certification for “Welcome to the Party.” “Dior” had also become an anthem at the New York protests against police brutality, which is part of why the timing of this release felt so loaded. 50 Cent recruited several features for the album and was executive producing it.

Where It Sits in the Pop Smoke Catalog

“Make It Rain” is from the album Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon. Spotify and Audiomack list it on the Deluxe edition, while Apple Music lists it as a standalone single. Either way, it was the opening move, the first sound of Pop Smoke’s posthumous run.

Why It Stays in Rotation on Hoodz Radio

This is our take: “Make It Rain” works because it doesn’t play like a memorial. It plays like a drill record with real teeth, where Pop sounds locked in and Rowdy Rebel’s voice cuts through from somewhere most of us can’t reach.

It also honors a chain. A young king from Brooklyn, a GS9 voice from the generation before him, and a team that treated the release like it mattered. That’s the Hoodz Radio ethos in one track: respect the legacy, amplify the movement.

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