Pop Smoke and the Pandemic Sound that Captivates Us All

Photograph by Griffin Lotz / Rolling Stone / Shutterstock

In the early morning hours of February 19th, 2020, I had come back from a long session working at the library right by my dorm. It was around 1:30 AM, and I had struck up a conversation with my roommate about what we’d been listening to recently. At the time, Roddy Ricch was an omnipresent part of my daily routine, and I felt like for once, the number one song on Spotify’s US charts was…