| Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 3, 2020 | |||
| Recorded |
| |||
| Studio |
| |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 56:41 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer |
| |||
| Pop Smoke chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon | ||||
| ||||
Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon is the debut studio album by American rapper Pop Smoke. It was posthumously released on July 3, 2020, by Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records, and a deluxe edition of the album that includes fifteen additional tracks—including remixes of three songs from the original—was released on July 20 that year, a date that would have been Pop Smoke's 21st birthday. It is a drill, trap, and R&B record.
American rapper 50 Cent executive-produced Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon following the murder of Pop Smoke during a home invasion on February 19, 2020. 50 Cent finished the album for Pop Smoke by calling the featured artists and taking care of the deadlines. After the completion, 50 Cent helped fulfill Pop Smoke's wish to take his mother to an awards show. Jess Jackson mastered and sequenced Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon and reworked the tracks to get the professional sound of a big recording studio. Before his death, Pop Smoke had begun to set up the Shoot for the Stars Foundation to help youth achieve their goals while living and growing up in difficult circumstances, providing access to technology and other resources. Guest appearances on the album include Quavo, Lil Baby, DaBaby, Swae Lee, Future, Rowdy Rebel, 50 Cent, Roddy Ricch, Tyga, Karol G, Lil Tjay, and King Combs. The deluxe edition of the album adds appearances from Fivio Foreign, Dafi Woo, Dread Woo, Davido, PnB Rock, Jamie Foxx, Gunna, Young Thug, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Queen Naija, Calboy, and Burna Boy.
Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon was supported by six singles, including US Billboard Hot 100 top-20 hits "The Woo", "Mood Swings", "For the Night", and "What You Know Bout Love". Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon was a commercial success, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 and giving Pop Smoke his first US number-one album. All 19 tracks on the standard album also charted on the Billboard Hot 100 following its first week of release, which gave the late rapper the most simultaneous entries on the Hot 100 posthumously. The album spent two non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 and received a double platinum certification. With Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon spending 34 weeks in the top five of the Billboard 200, it became the fourth album in the 21st century to spend so many weeks in the top five.
The album also topped the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums for 19 non-consecutive weeks and Top Rap Albums chart for 20 non-consecutive weeks, making it the longest-running number-one record on the latter chart. Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon received mostly positive reviews from music critics upon release and multiple publications praised the production. It appeared on several publications' lists of the best albums of 2020, including being placed in the top-10 by Billboard, Complex, The New York Times, The Ringer, and NPR. The album won Top Billboard 200 Album and Top Rap Album at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards.