Polo G

One Liner: Melodic Chicago rapper getting honest in his lyrics.

Wikipedia Genre: Hip hop, trap, drill, conscious hip hop
Home: Chicago

Poster Position: 5
Both Weekends.

Sunday at 4:30 on the Honda Stage

Thoughts:   His first (real) name is Taurus, which is kinda cool.  Taurus Tremani Bartlett.  From Chicago.  Wikipedia lists a handful of other monikers, which I'm enjoying - Lil Capalot, Mr. DooTooMuch, Wolo G, and Polo Capalot.  That second one is wonderful.  Do you remember those little books that had characters based on certain attributes, like Inside Out before Pixar found it?  Mr. DooTooMuch sounds like a dude who can't quit pooping and needs to learn a good lesson about why pooping a lot is actually a positive.  G was hospitalized in 2019 for a near-fatal drug overdose, and has apparently since qui ecstasy and Xanax.

I don't recall how the song came across my radar previously, but "Pop Out" is a track I have listened to a good number of times before.  I like it.  But here is what I said when I reviewed it earlier this year: "Polo G - Pop Out.  I really like that he tells people to "tuck your chain," as that makes me think of Friday, and anything that does that is cool.  The guest verse by Lil Tjay is bad though, it takes the track down."  But it is still his top track, with 535 million streams.

Good flow, fun beat, I like it overall.  Not saying much, just bragging a bunch, but still fun.  And I stand by my feeling that the guest verse is bad.

He's already had three albums (at the tender age of 22), and they've peaked at #6, #2, and #1.  Damn impressive.  Wikipedia says he was originally known for his Chicago drill sound, which is a style of rap defined by dark and violent lyrics and ominous trap beats.  if that "Pop Out" track is supposed to be representative of his drill days, then I'm not sure if they know what dark lyrics are really like.

Second-most streamed is the hit from the new album, which was apparently a big song on TikTok.  This is "RAPSTAR," which has 321 million streams.

Huh.  It's kind of a sad track.  At first, it sounds like he's just doing a regular brag session about making lots of money and getting sex, but then he's admitting to anxiety and taking pills to feel better.  The beat is very basic, but it works.  The guy at the start of the video is apparently a well known ukulele guy?  "Einer Bankz, a ukulele player with a reputation for making viral acoustic collaborations with rappers."  That is a weird sentence.  Complex wrote about how they had initially just put together a little acoustic snippet of that track, and fans went nuts for it, making thousands of TikTok videos to the acoustic version and demanding a full version of the track.  The world is SO WEIRD right now.  That fans can demand that an artist re-do a track and create something for them, and then launch the guy into stardom when he complies?  Strange.  But the dude knows what he's doing by answering the fans and getting a #1 song and #1 album.

None of these tracks are knocking my socks off.  They're fine.  "21" is better than most, and I liked the combo of beat and vocals on "Go Stupid."  Those other two linked above are good.  He makes the raps melodic, without actually just switching over to singing (most of the time), which I like, but it still isn't distinctly memorable enough to stick to me.  Depending on the schedule, I doubt I'd go do this one.