The young rapper seamlessly blends Chicago drill music and popular melodic rap to morph himself into a hybrid of Lil Durk and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie on his newest release

“Pop Out” rapper Polo G is here to make sure that he’s remembered for more than his smash hit.

The North Chicago artist begin releasing music in 2017 on YouTube and gained a small following. Upon getting out of prison in 2018 Polo G promised himself he wouldn’t go back but rather dedicate his life to music. Shortly after, he began to see his decision pay off as his following grew and he signed an independent distribution deal with Columbia. At the beginning of 2019, he dropped “Pop Out” featuring Lil Tjay. The single exploded and is currently just short of 100,000,000 streams on Spotify.

The only prerelease that Polo G dropped from the album besides “Pop Out” was a song titled “Deep Wounds” which came out on May 17th. The song has been in my constant rotation for the past three weeks and is my favorite track on the album. Deep Wounds is a reflective track where Polo G is extremely personal about his come up and the life that he is so ready to escape. The song is powerful and his melodic hook is as catchy as anything on the album.

On June 7th, the Chicago spitter released “Die A Legend” and was met with a positive response.

The album heats up quick with its intro “Lost Files” being one of the tapes strongest tracks. Polo raps with a rapid-fire delivery, finds his pocket, and stays in it for the majority of the two-minute track. The instrumental hits harder than any other beat on the tape and gets listeners excited for what is to come.

The third cut “Through Da Storm” is a chilling track that feels colder than an iced out Rolex. The track is prefaced with a recorded message from Polo G’s little sister who says she always knew he’d be a star. The instrumental is anchored by chimes that you would expect to hear in a child’s nursery adding to the somber personality of this track.

“Battle Cry” is the sixth song and another clear standout and is home to him opening up about his abuse of ecstasy pills. In an interview with Pitchfork, he opened up about the E pill epidemic in Chicago: “I’ve gone through some bad times with the pills. In Chicago, what’s messing up the youth right now is the ecstasy pills. Almost everybody in the city pop pills—kids, older people—and they look at you like you crazy if you don’t.” When asked why pill popping is so prevalent in Chicago, Polo G explained, “It’s a coping mechanism, and that’s their escape. We desensitized to murders and shootings; if we hear shooting we don’t even move, it’s the norm. I’ve seen at least six or seven altercations that’s left someone bleeding out. And there’s nobody in the neighborhood checking on these kids. After a kid in our school dies at 13, no therapists are there. We just deal with it ourselves. Nobody ever comes to check on these kids, and without that, it’s just a never-ending cycle.”

“I’ve gone through some bad times with the pills. In Chicago, what’s messing up the youth right now is the ecstasy pills. Almost everybody in the city pop pills—kids, older people—and they look at you like you crazy if you don’t.”

— Polo G

The track “Last Strike” follows the excellent pre-release “Deep Wounds” and is another moving track where Polo forces his important message of escaping the struggle on his listeners. His lyrics are raw and honest on “Last Strike” and he sounds bitter at those who wronged him in ways we can’t understand.

The album concludes with a remix of “Pop Out” which features Gunna and Lil Baby instead of Lil Tjay. The two Atlanta emcees reinvent the song in a great way by both delivering solid verses and using their trademarked styles over a song we’re all already familiar with. With this being said, I’ve simply heard “Pop Out” too much since its release making this remix a skip for me even though it was done well.

Polo G’s intention for this tape is clear: show the world what North Chicago is really like. He succeeds in reeling us into his life with his passionate storytelling and wounded, melodic delivery. The songs are moving and are filled with purpose and emotion.

While emotional songs for the streets are excellent, there is such thing as too much of a good thing and we start to see this towards the end of “Die A Legend”. While Polo’s theme is supposed to be making it out the struggle, at some points it seems like his theme is repetition for repetition’s sake. Don’t get me wrong, every story Polo tells on this album is intriguing and needing to be told, I just believe that some of the more profound tracks on this project could’ve had more of an impact if it wasn’t the only type of track on the album.

All-in-all, Polo G’s “Die A Legend” is a solid debut project that solidifies the Chicago emcee as a top new rapper with lots of potential. While he will need to work on his stylistic diversity, the passion that he raps with cannot be taught or emulated and will serve him properly in the remainder of his musical career.

Favorite Tracks:

Lost Files

Through Da Storm

Deep Wounds

Rating: 7

Listen to Die A Legend here:

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