Death can be a prison for the dead trapped in the vision of the living. Posthumous albums are inherently, at best, interpretations of the fallen artist's intentions molded by how those who are still alive feel the music would fit today. The news of a new posthumous Pop Smoke album arriving a year after his debut album was a major surprise: a mix of elation over new songs from the Brooklyn drill emperor and skeptical trepidation over how an entirely new album could be made in such a short period of time.
The 56 minutes of Faith unsuccessfully try to stretch a career cut too short into a future he didn't plan for. Following Pop's death, his manager Steven Victor told Complex that 80% of the songs Pop had in the archives were finished how Pop wanted them, and executive producer 50 Cent estimated there were between 50 and 60 songs they had to choose from when putting together his debut album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon. That would mean between 40-50 songs were finished products — and 34 were released just on the Shoot For The Moon deluxe version. That would leave no more than 16 songs remaining, and I highly doubt they would use every last Pop Smoke session for only two records. That leads to the most glaring problem with Faith and posthumous albums, in general: it sounds like a collection of polished demos.
