American rapper, Pop Smoke, shot dead !

20-year-old American rapper Pop Smoke has been killed in a gruesome murder on Wednesday morning at a home in the Hollywood Hills, LA law enforcement officials confirm.

According to law enforcement's report to TMZ, the rapper whose real name is Bashar Barakah Jackson, was shot multiple times around 4:30 a.m. by two masked men who broke into his residence in Hollywood Hills, Calif.

Pop Smoke was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in West Hollywood where he was pronounced dead.

Pop Smoke, best known for singles “Welcome to the Party” and “Dior,” is signed to Republic Records. Since releasing his first mixtape “Welcome to the Woo” last July, he’s collaborated with artists including Nicki Minaj and Travis Scott. His second mixtape ,”Meet the Woo 2,” was released this month. It debuted at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart. Pop Smoke was scheduled to begin a month-long North American tour on March 2, and then perform in England in April.

In January, Pop Smoke was arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport — hours before he was scheduled to perform at a concert — on a charge of transporting a stolen vehicle over state lines. The vehicle was a black 2019 Rolls-Royce worth an estimated $375,000 that he had borrowed for a music video in California, according to an indictment and a law enforcement official; investigators told the New York Times the car was found parked outside Pop Smoke’s mother’s home in Brooklyn, with a different license plate. The rapper, who had just arrived in New York from Paris Fashion Week, pleaded not guilty and was released on $250,000 bail the same day. Last week he denied the charge in an interview with Power 105.1’s Angie Martinez, calling the incident “foolishness.”

In October, he was one of five New York rappers that the NYPD blocked from performing at the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in Queens. Officers claimed that the rappers had been “affiliated with recent acts of violence citywide,” but did not specify any criminal behavior.

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