for the love of music
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By Luke Modugno
“I ain’t jokin’, do it sound like I’m kiddin’?
I been makin’ like two thousand a minute
So high up through the clouds, I was swimmin’”
It won't be long until Polo G is a household name. Last year, the 22-year-old made some mainstream noise with the release of his well-received project “THE G.O.A.T.” Ever since the release of their hit record “Pop Out,” with Lil Tjay, both rappers have seen plenty of success on the charts. According to Billboard, “RAPSTAR” is challenging the wildly controversial and popular “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” for the top spot in the U.K. on the OCC’s First Look chart. Produced by Einer Bankz and Synco, the ukulele based production gives Polo the perfect stage to rap about his recent run of successes as a young rapstar.
“RAPSTAR” is expected to be a part of Polo G’s upcoming project titled “HALL OF FAME,” which is slated to release at some point later this year. Is “RAPSTAR” making your rotation or nah?
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Since its birth in the early 2010s, Drill music has been used to fuel negative stereotypes on Black men.
Artists such as Lil Durk and Chief Keef are believed to be glorifying a life of violence and criminality. The connotation that Drill music has had, is honestly unfair; the violent lyrics and music videos are purely forms of artistic expression. It’s a genre dominated by the Black community’s disadvantaged youth, who strive to tell their stories the best way they can. This way of life was not a choice for these young men, the root of why Drill music exists in the first place is a whole new article in itself.
However, the conversation at hand is about Polo G, an artist who shows that Chicago Drill may be the most socially aware genre in rap.
In track 1 “Don’t Believe The Hype”, Polo raps about drug addiction, lost loved ones, and the lack of support he’s dealt with in his life. We hear Polo admit it’s hard for him to find the line between his old life and a new life (“He want all them niggas dead, it's sad to say, but I feel him / If I ain't had so much to lose, I'd be riskin' it with him”). Mostly though we hear Polo brag about his fame, and how he persevered to get there (“They weren't with me through my struggles, all this shit I sacrificed / I climbed out the darkness, now my Patek shinin' bright”).
Track 2 is the certified gold single “Heartless” featuring Dj Mustard. The first half of this song describes Polo in his essence: a ladies man, a proud Chicago native, and an aspiring businessman (see Polo break down the meaning of the hit single for Genius).
Track 6, “21” is one of the best on the album. It’s Polo’s 21st birthday, and what may have him reminiscing on this track so much is how many people he’s known who haven’t made it to 21. He mentions the passing of another Chicago G.O.A.T Juice Wrld, whose untimely death reminds him to not fall back into the habit of abusing drugs. “Can't relapse off these drugs, man, R.I.P. to Juice / We was tweakin' off them Percs, I popped my last one with you.” Polo’s raps are often all over the place, but it’s delivered in the best possible way. Almost every line in the second verse refers to a different point in Polo’s life, and the lives of those he loves. Polo raps about being successful ever since he started rapping and never being satisfied with his achievements, to then commenting on how Chicago’s streets resemble battlefields at times. Every bar Polo delivers paints a picture into the listener’s head on this track. My favorite line by far is “Took losses in these streets, shit got me singin' gang blues”. “Gang Blues” might be the best description of Drill music I’ve ever heard.
Track 8 is “I Know”, an extremely emotional song. In the chorus Polo raps about losing the life of a dear friend, it seems as if he lost the friend while he was famous. He shared drugs, good times, and bad times with this friend; but still they lost their life. “How the fuck I wake up from a dream to a nightmare?” Is this line an indication that Polo may feel some guilt for being able to escape his past lifestyle? If the line is what I think it is, this may be why Polo struggles to see the advantages of fame since all of his friends can’t live like him. The track also features how hard it was to grow up in Chicago, and how it’s hard to find a girl who wants him for a reason other than his fame.
Track 15 “Trials & Tribulations”, leaked on Soundcloud the day the album was set to release and I’ve got to admit… I probably replayed this song for an hour straight. “Trials and Tribulations” starts off with another great chorus from Polo, he might have the best hooks in the game right now. Almost all of Polo G’s songs revolve around life in Chicago, which is pretty funny considering people from other places say Chicagoans never stop talking about Chicago. The streets of Chicago are what made Polo the man he is today, and he learned early on that no one could save him but himself. People who aren’t accustomed to life in the streets often make it seem like you always have a choice, or that getting help is an easy task, but Polo knows this isn’t true. “Them streets'll turn a good kid into a cold lil' savage / No point in church 'cause the preacher can't keep them poles from clappin' / It seem like evil and my soul attractin'”. As soon we wiped our eyes from hearing that chorus, midway into the first verse we hear Polo say “Hood on my back, was bustin' two-fours like Kobe Bryant / Sometimes I think like what's the likelihood of Kobe dyin'?”. I don’t think I’ll EVER get used to Kobe’s death. This song is one of Polo’s “tell-alls”, he’s always honest with fans, and he could care less about haters cause he knows his message will reach those who need to hear it.
Finally, we’re at the last track, “Wishing For A Hero” featuring BJ The Chicago Kid. The song samples 2Pac’s song “Changes” and at first, it gave me mixed feelings. There’s always something off about hearing artists sample 2Pc tracks to me, but now it’s my favorite from the whole album. The song proves that Polo is the most socially aware rapper from Chicago since Kanye (don’t @ me). He raps about how his Blackness puts him in a constant emotional, and physical battle with himself and others. He raps about Black on Black crime being a direct result of racism. He even hints at self-hate and drug addiction. Hearing a man who was conditioned to hate himself, rap like this puts a smile on my face.
The originators of Drill Music are Chicagoans, so it makes sense that now in 2020, Polo G and other Chicago artists are taking the genre to new heights. In my opinion, Drill is a genre that describes daily life in the streets; all of the violent and dark details are embedded in the music. Now that many of our favorite Drill artists are no longer in the streets (Chief Keef, G Herbo, Lil Durk, and Polo G), much of their music describes past ordeals and the struggles of putting the street life behind them. Is this an evolution of what Drill once was, or are the artists mentioned no longer a part of the Drill scene?
21
Trials & Tribulations
Wishing For A Hero (Feat. BJ The Chicago Kid)
Rating: 9
Listen to THE GOAT here:
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“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.”
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.
Lost Files
Through Da Storm
Deep Wounds
Rating: 7
Listen to Die A Legend here:
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