Pop Smoke
was one of the most promising up-and-coming rappers out of New York in a minute.
He exploded onto the scene with tracks like Welcome to the Party and Dior,
and was on his way to becoming a certified icon before his tragic death in 2020.
Reports originally said it was a robbery gone wrong,
but now a woman who was in the house with him when he died
is accusing Pop’s day one, Mike Dee, of backdooring the rapper.
Here’s what’s going on.
On February 19th, 2020,
Pop Smoke was murdered
while staying at an Airbnb in the Hollywood Hills.
Four dudes broke in through a second-story balcony
just 10 minutes after Pop’s guests left the house.
Pop was in the shower at the time,
and the intruders put a gun to the woman’s head who was staying with him.
One of them told her “Shut the **** up. Do you want to die?”
Then she heard an altercation in the bathroom.
Pop screamed and ran out of the shower.
Then someone let off a shot and he fell to the ground.
While he was bleeding out on the floor, two of the men started kicking him.
Pop managed to get back on his feet and run downstairs,
but the shooters shot him two more times and he collapsed.
The woman saw Pop laying on the ground and screamed at Mike Dee,
who was also staying at the AirBnB, to call 911.
Then the dudes stole Pop’s watch and fled the scene.
On July 9th, 2020,
two adult males and two minors got arrested for his murder.
While locked up, one of the minors allegedly admitted to his cellmate in juvie
that he killed Pop for his Rolex.
He told his cellmate that at first everything was going smoothly
and Pop was going to hand over his jewelry,
but then he tried to fight back and got pistol-whipped and shot.
It was also revealed that the day before Pop was killed,
he posted photos to social media that showed the address of the Airbnb.
He had gotten a gift and posted a photo to his IG story,
with the address of the house visible.
This led police to believe that the thieves were monitoring the rapper online
and saw the opportunity to rob him.
But now Pop’s homie is being accused of setting him up.
A woman named Amelia Rose
recently came out and claimed to be the woman who was staying with Pop
on the night he was killed.
She aired out the whole story on Instagram
and claims that Mike Dee betrayed his own friend.
Now keep in mind these are all just rumors right now
and none of her accusations been proven.
Amelia started off her post
by explaining how the situation has been affecting her for the past two years
and why she ain’t spoke up all this time.
She says she was traumatized by murder and for the first year after it happened,
she was so depressed that she barely remembers anything.
Her mental state was so bad that at one point she even attempted suicide.
She then described how seeing someone die for the first time changed her life completely.
According to her story, she was laying in bed that night
while Pop was in the bathroom.
Then the balcony door opened up and four men came inside.
One of them put a gun to her head, stole her bag with her phone and passport,
and threatened to kill her if she ain’t shut up.
The other three dudes went to grab Pop out of the bathroom.
Amelia heard him scream, then they brought Pop into the bedroom
and she locked eyes with him as the first shot went off.
One of the men stomped on his head,
but Pop still jumped up and tried to run away.
The four men chased him down and Amelia heard two more shots.
She hid in the bathroom until the house was quiet,
then she went downstairs and found Pop laying on the ground without a pulse.
According to Amelia, she was about to run to the neighbor’s crib for help,
but then she heard a noise and thought the dudes came back to kill her too.
She hid behind a door, but it ended up being Pop’s homie Mike Dee.
Even before Amelia Rose came forward with her story,
fans accused Mike Dee of being involved in Pop’s death.
He posted the Airbnb’s address on social media the day before the shooting,
and some people believed he leaked it on purpose to let the shooters know where to go.
Mike hopped on Instagram to defend himself
and let everyone know how he really felt about Pop - he wrote:
“CANT NOTHING EXPRESS THE PAIN IM FEELING… I JUST LOST MY ****** BROTHER.
YALL DONT KNO WHATS GOING ON
YALL COME ON HERE PLAYING INVESTIGATOR AND BASHING ME ON THE INTERNET.
I WOULD NEVER IN MY LIFE SET MY BROTHER UP,
WE ATE TOGETHER, BROKE BREAD TOGETHER THIS REALLY MY MOTHER CHILD
I DONT GOTTA EXPLAIN NOTHING TO NOBODY.”
Mike has tried to make it clear that he had nothing to do with the murder,
but Amelia claims he was acting sketchy the whole day before it went down.
According to her, Mike was acting nervous and texting someone all night.
She wrote on Instagram: “When we got home you were talking to someone on the phone.
Maybe you will tell everyone the truth?
Who is the black woman who did set up, who are the people involved in his murder.
You know everything i saw everything.”
She then claimed that Mike even told the shooters the layout of the house:
“I remember how you looked out the window and wrote to someone.
It is from this window that you can see the stairs
along which they climbed to the second floor.
Two rooms overlooked this balcony
and I wonder how they knew which room to go to.
I’m sure mike that it was you who gave them the information.”
Amelia and Pop’s fans ain’t the only ones who thought the situation was suspicious.
Pop’s older brother Obasi posted a message on Instagram in May 2021 that said
“"Somethings not right about this case!
The info not matching and ppl moving crazy.
Bashar on God we getting to the bottom of it I'm sorry da real wasn't with you.
I'm sorry you said n****s would shoot back and they didn't.
I'm sorry you thought n****s would fight for you and they're not even doing that in death.
It seems you were more valuable alive.
Everybody gets mad when I speak up cause it threatens position in this gang ****.
Since you been away pop, people's love have been M.I.A."
Something do seem off.
But if Mike Dee was involved, his motive ain’t clear.
Some rumors said it was all over money,
but Amelia claims the intruders never mentioned money.
According to her, “all the news that he was naked in the shower is a lie.
I didn’t tell the detectives this information.
they didn’t tell him anything about money.
they came quickly killed him and ran.”
The way she tells the story, it sounds more like a targeted hit than a robbery.
Pop and Mike Dee were like brothers though,
and no one has come out with any proof that there was beef behind the scenes.
Five people were arrested for the murder, but only four of them got charged.
19 year old Corey Walker and 18 year old Keandre Rodgers
are both facing life in prison if they’re convicted.
According to police, Walker, Rodgers, and the two unidentified minors
are all in the same gang and targeted Pop from Instagram posts.
The police planted a mic in one of the minor’s cells
and caught him telling his celly that they were after Pop’s Rolex and Cuban-link chain.
Then an informant was put in Walker’s cell, who recorded him saying they used ski masks,
gloves, and a police scanner to get away with the robbery.
Walker’s lawyer argued that his murder charge should be dropped
because he wasn’t even in the house.
He claims that his client was just the driver,
and that he even told the other dudes
to hit Pop with a flower vase or something if they had to - but not to shoot him.
After the rest of the crew got back to the car,
Walker allegedly assaulted the 15-year old shooter for killing Pop.
Amelia Rose claims that it was a straight-up murder, but this evidence say otherwise.
Most rappers who get killed end up dying in their hometown.
A 2022 report found that at least 75% of rappers killed since 1987
were murdered in the city they grew up in.
This data makes it seem more likely that the murder was a lick gone wrong,
not a targeted hit because Pop wasn’t known to be beefing with anyone in LA.
But even if Pop’s murder wasn’t premeditated,
being a rapper is still more dangerous than ever.
In the last six years alone,
more artists have been killed than in the last decade and a half.
There still ain’t no concrete evidence
to disprove what the prosecutors have said about the case.
But Amelia Rose told Mike Dee on her Instagram post:
“prison is waiting for you and it’s inevitable.
Detectives are sure that someone from the house was in control of the situation.”
She also implied that more people were involved and are still out on the streets.
The cops don’t believe the murder was gang-related, but some people ain’t so sure.
Pop was affiliated with the 823 cripps, GS9, and the Woo,
a Brooklyn gang that is made up of several different sets.
The Woos beef with another gang called the Choos,
and rumors say his death might be linked to the war between the two gangs.
The rumor about Pop’s death being tied to his street affiliations
picked up more steam when someone vandalized his grave in September 2021.
TMZ broke the story that someone smashed Pop’s crypt and tried to steal his casket.
A marble plaque with his name on it was also destroyed,
and they also left a partially smoked joint on the ground.
No one was ever arrested for it, but rumors say it was his opps from Brooklyn.
Unless Amelia Rose actually knows more details about the case than everyone else,
it seems like the authorities are moving forward
with the idea that it was just a random robbery.
If Pop was set up by his own people,
it wouldn’t be the first time a rapper was betrayed by his homies.
But for now, the evidence don’t support that rumor.
Pop’s death was a HUGE blow to the hip hop community.
He only started recording music in 2018,
and by the time he died he was on his way to the top.
Besides what he could have accomplished with his music,
Pop also wanted to inspire young kids
to take a better path than getting involved in the streets.
Pop was in the streets from a young age and got expelled in 8th grade for bringing a gun to school.
He spent his life in the trenches,
but before he died his homies say he wanted to be a better person.
He was even planning to create a foundation called Shoot for the Stars
to help kids in the inner city make it out.
He died before it launched,
but his family moved forward with the foundation after his death.
More details about Pop’s murder will come out once the trials for his alleged killers begin,
but for now it looks like the prosecutors believe they got enough evidence
to convict the four suspects.
If anything Amelia Rose said is true, it’s gon be brought up in court.
Hopefully, it will also bring fans and family members closure for this tragic loss.
Rest in peace to Pop Smoke, gone but not forgotten…