Days before he was killed in a Hollywood home invasion that the authorities now believe was a targetted hit, Pop Smoke was supposed to play a show at Kings Theatre in his hometown of Brooklyn.
He canceled the show and told his fans the police had shut it down. "Unfortunately NYPD wouldn't let me perform," he wrote on Instagram. According to TMZ, that's not really what happened. They say Smoke made the decision to pull the plug on the show himself because he was concerned there might be gang members in the audience.
As he pointed out on his first two mixtapes, Meet the Woo and Meet the Woo 2, Smoke was affiliated with the Woos, a Brooklyn gang collective who the authorities say are involved in a nihilist knock out game with rival collective the Choos.
Earlier this month, the Brooklyn DA arrested 34 Woos and Choos in connection with 13 shootings.
The rival street gangs are known as WOOO (We On Our Own) and CHOO. We allege that these gang members’ primary activity is to track rivals and to shoot at each other on sight on the streets of Brooklyn.
— Eric Gonzalez (@BrooklynDA) February 5, 2020
This is outrageous and will not be tolerated. pic.twitter.com/MlFkdGPKcW
So far, there is no public evidence tying Smoke's death in California to gang issues back home.