Pop Smoke's mom says she avoids music one year after rapper's death: 'It hurts.'

Pop Smoke's mother Audrey Jackson is reflecting on her son's legacy a year after his death.

On Friday, exactly a year after Pop Smoke (real name Bashar Barakah Jackson) was shot and killed at 20, Jackson appeared on "The Breakfast Club" with New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams to speak about gun violence and her son's memory.

"It's very painful," Jackson said about her son's posthumous success. "He should be here with you... at ‘The Breakfast Club' he would listen to you all every day. He sat in the kitchen at the table, played you all. This should have been his moment."

Jackson added she can't listen to Pop Smoke's music after his death, or any music for that matter because "it hurts."

"Because that was our connection. That was our thing. We danced together, we sang together," Jackson said. "Our relationship was around music in our household... It is difficult, it really is painful and it's not getting easier, it's getting harder."

Jackson was asked if she's reached a place of forgiveness for the two minors who've been charged with murder for her son's death.

"It's neither place. They've done something and there should be some sort of repercussion for what they've done," Jackson said. "But my brain goes to their households that have been disturbed. Mine has been damaged, but their moms and their dads, too, have had some stuff. It’s not about forgiveness, per se, but just kind of understanding the dynamics of what’s going on.

Jackson added though she's not exactly "ready to go out to tea and to lunch" yet, she tries not to "operate out of a place of negativity or anger because it doesn’t serve any purpose."

Jackson and her husband Greg Jackson released an anti-gun violence PSA last month and have plans to continue expanding Pop Smoke's Shoot for the Stars Foundation, a non-profit the rapper started that aims to give kids access to technology.

Last year on Feb. 19, Pop Smoke was the victim of a home invasion and shooting in California. Five months later, two men and two teens were charged with killing the rapper.

At the time, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that five people had been arrested in relation to the death of Pop Smoke. A 911 call from a friend of someone in the house reported armed intruders inside the home, police previously said.

Contributing: Sara Moniuszko

More: 'I miss u Bro': Pop Smoke's posthumous album evokes all the feels as Quavo, more react

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pop Smoke's mom says 'it hurts' to listen to rapper's music